You’ve been entrusted with an invincible, invisible, eternal weapon—and it’s time you used it. Whether you’re aware or not, you are part of an epic battle, and God does not want His daughters to be unarmed or unaware. The success of the most recent Star Wars movie hints at just what might happen if we become girls with swords. We do not live by the violence of a sword, but it is high time we lived by the power of one. To illustrate this point, I am going to turn to another movie, the original Terminator.
OK, stay with me. I’m not endorsing the movie or suggesting you watch it. I saw an edited-for-TV version, and it was still ’80s awful! But amid the ridiculous hair, disjointed music and bad acting, I found something valuable.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the movie, allow me to paint a vastly shortened version for you. It is the story of Sarah Connor, a moped-riding waitress who serves pie and coffee by day and hopes one of her blind dates will work out by night. All of that changes when a robotic assassin from the future interrupts her life. The Terminator—aka Arnold Schwarzenegger, actor and California’s former governor—has time-traveled with one goal: the elimination of anyone bearing the name Sarah Connor. As he systematically works his way down the list, Sarah slips out to a bar to hide in a crowd. However, the Terminator is relentless and shows up at the club, guns blazing and wreaking mayhem. In the midst of the chaos, Kyle Reese—Sarah’s protector from the future—appears and says to her: “Come with me if you wanna live.”
It doesn’t take Sarah long to decide. She wants to live! She leaves with Kyle, and the two of them are on the run. A high-speed chase ensues, and as bullets fly and cars crash, Kyle tries to tell Sarah who she is. He explains that in the future she is a hero in the fight against the enemy of all mankind. An entire army wages war, equipped with foresight and the strategies she recorded and passed on to her son.
Sarah does not believe she is a player in this absurd future story. She is confident there is a case of mistaken identity. Sarah counters that she’s just a waitress who doesn’t even have a boyfriend, so certainly there’s no son! Her guardian has made a grave mistake; he’s confused her with someone else!
But he insists that she is, in fact, a hero, and his mission is to equip and protect her. Understandingly overwhelmed and undone, Sarah yells, “I didn’t do anything!” To which Kyle insists, “No, but you will!”
Choose to Be a Hero
As I sat with my son on the sofa, watching this movie, that line from decades past crashed into my present with the realization that our enemy often knows who we are long before we awaken and realize who we are.
I need you to know the two things Sarah learned in the Terminator movie. Lovely one:
1) You are a target.
2) You might be a hero.
I say “might” be because the choice is ultimately yours. But if you’re a Christian, you are a target. The moment you are anointed by God’s Spirit, you are noted by the enemy. There’s no choice about this. There is a real, highly structured force of darkness in this Earth that wrestles against all who represent God’s light and life.
Satan wants to distract you from who you really are and from the true purpose of your life. He wants to lure you off the path of strength, life and authority and onto a course of intentional destruction. Satan knows your potential and is systematically working to undermine your future. This is why I believe the present attacks on your life have much more to do with who you might be in the future than with who you have been in the past.
You see, like the assassin in The Terminator, the enemy has your name. Don’t let this frighten you. Take a deep breath and realize you are alive with purpose. Don’t get paranoid or take this personally because the attack is against one and all. Remember everything you’ve been through in your life, then throw your shoulders back and realize no one launches a large-scale systematic assault against anyone who is not considered a threat.
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