The Military Historian and the Soldier

I once had a friend who was a world-renowned military historian, perhaps the most knowledgeable Vietnam War scholar alive.

Interestingly, he had never served in the military himself. He knew more about what soldiers had done in the past than any soldier alive. But he had never been in combat, never followed an order, never taken a pledge, never put on a uniform.

We are all tempted to be experts on the Christian faith rather than disciples of Jesus. We can know all about the Bible without ever being gripped by the living Word of God. We can know all about great saints who have come and gone without letting Christ's glory overtake and overwhelm us. We can easily become people who know all about what God used to do in the world while we never notice the miracles all around. We can become experts in mission strategy who never live with a sense of Gospel call. We can drone on all day about the theology of the cross without ever abandoning our lives in self-sacrificial humble love.

May God deliver me from being a military historian and instead make me a soldier for his peaceable Kingdom.