Breathless

The Lord God helps me;
    therefore I have not been disgraced;
therefore I have set my face like flint,
    and I know that I shall not be put to shame;
     he who vindicates me is near.
Who will contend with me?
    Let us stand up together.
Who are my adversaries?
    Let them confront me.
Isaiah 50.7-8

I really love this verse; it gives me a sense of collaboration. It is a call that those who oppose the one who follows God are invited to do so. Isaiah doesn't care because God is with him and that is the height of his work. Verse 9 has the phrase, "Look, all of them will wear out like clothes; a moth will eat away at them." It isn't even that Isaiah takes the fight, the rest seem to run out of breathe without the Spirit of God.

I think some go looking for fights, which is not what the reading is calling us to. I think looking for a fight is a silly way to express the love in the Gospel but how we respond to a fight is so important. It takes a lifetime of failure and grace to learn the patience needed to respond in a way where the other ends up throwing in the towel on themselves. By the Spirit of God I have had that at times; but I know in myself I can get fired up far to easy still.

I remember one day I was talking with someone at the accountancy end of financial year party. I worked at a "Satellite" office in a small city and we joined in with the events in Canberra. I am also not the guy to be found chilling in a posh beer garden; it has never been my scene. I remember talking to someone for so long that night. He was gay and had more then enough stories against the church from his experience. Yet it was through my presence, and agreeing that he experienced hatred that he didn't have any breath left in his argument. So instead of an argument or polite debate we got to just be; leading to him describing it as one of the best experiences he had with a Christian.

Then I am further reminded of David Bennett's story as expressed in A War of Loves (which I can not find my copy of so hence no reference). It is not any hard lined evangelical apologetic that started his Christian journey. It was an old friend in a bar who never condemned him and in doing so gave him no need to have an argument or debate, there was no breath other then the Spirit of God.