Not Dead Yet
Playing a game of Risk with me is no fun. This isn’t because I always win. On the contrary, my win/loss ratio is nothing to boast about. The reason it’s no fun is because I never quit. Never. I will fight down to the last army. If I can, I will always secure Australia and hole up there if necessary. And when things get that desperate, it’s almost guaranteed that I’ll lose. The other players just want me to give up, surrender, and let them get on with the game of conquering the world. After all, it’ll go much faster as soon as I do.
But, like a mouse in the jaws of a cat, I’ll bite and scratch until my last breath. Who knows? Maybe I’ll chomp into an artery and the cat will bleed to death. It’s unlikely, but it will NOT happen if I don’t fight back. While I’m alive, I can at least fight. I can’t fight once I’m dead.
And once, I emerged from Australia and swept the board.
As J. Michael Straczynski said in the Babylon 5 (channeling Captain John Sheridan), “If you’re falling off a cliff, you may as well try to fly. You’ve got nothing to lose.”
In USAF Survival School, I learned the story of a pilot in Canada who ran out of fuel in bad weather. He was forced to land on a glacier. He climbed out of his fighter, smoked a cigarette, walked around his fighter, smoked another cigarette, and then shot himself. One can only assume that he was afraid to die in that cold frozen wasteland. As it turned out, he was only a few miles from civilization. He could have walked to safety.
In ancient Sparta, when a son marched off to battle, his mother would say, “Come back bearing your shield—or on it.” If he returned from battle being carried on his shield, at least he died fighting. If he returned from battle without his shield, it was a cause of great shame to his mother.
We’ve all had setbacks in our lives. We have all suffered disappointment, heartache, and tragedy. We have all suffered wrongs at the hands of others. Likewise, we have all sinned, offended, disappointed, and wronged others.
We are all broken. We are all damaged.
But there is One who can heal all our hurts, mend all our damage. And He will never abandon us.
Do not give in to despair. That is the enemy talking. He wants you to give up.
Fight on. Fight till the end. And never surrender.
No matter how broken you are, you’re not dead yet.
