There’s this movie.
OK, first up about me and movies. I don’t class myself as a movie fanatic, but I enjoy watching them. I like the odd occasion watching them at the cinema with a good friend – I much prefer watching it at a cinema with a good friend. Whereas when I’m at home, I enjoy watching it on my own. Sure the children can watch it with me on occasion – depending on the movies of course – but there’s something about paying attention to the story and whatever other story is going on.
In any case, this movie. It’s Captain America: The First Avenger. You might want to know what I think about that movie – but I have another place for those kind of views. What’s important for now is a scene in the movie. It’s a Second World War boot camp where some men are being trained for an elite mission to make progress in the effort for the allies. To help with this there is a certain project they are putting together and they are looking for the right guy.
Among the candidates for this top secret project is a weedy little asthmatic boy called Steve Rogers. He is so physically pathetic there are questions around his suitability. One of those questioning is the Colonel in charge of the project – Col. Chester Phillips. Phillips is a tough and gruff typical army leader type and he expects someone to live up to the expectation of an individual capable of winning the war – a man’s man – hard, physical, rough, even a bit of a bully. Phillips is concerned about this wimp Rogers being in the running and shares these concerns with the fella that selected him, Dr. Abraham Erskine.
There is something about Rogers that makes Erskine think he’s just the right man for this job even though everything else would suggest he’s not. Erskine makes a claim for his character. Phillips maintains his point that the guy’s too pathetic. To prove his point while the candidates are doing their rounds, he pulls the pin on a grenade and throws it among the candidates shouting, “Grenade!”
Men scarper for cover where they can and one among them leaps on the grenade in a bid to absorb as much of the impact and protect those around him. He doesn’t even know these men well and what he does know of them is that a few of them certainly live up to the bully expectation of Col. Phillips. Yet Phillips considers this act by Rogers and still quips to Erskine that he’s not got the physique.
Those who love reading scripture might recall how the successor to King Saul of Israel was selected. He turned out to be similar in terms of being an unlikely candidate but nevertheless despite not having the buff and bullying physique of others, he showed up when others cowered. When it came to Goliaths that threatened the livelihood of his people, his character and faith in something much bigger than either himself or the nine foot bully helped him to put himself in harm’s way.
That’s two inspiring stories if we’re the gung-ho, army type, but there’s more to life than that. Acts of bravery, feats of courage emerge in every day life if we have but the eyes to see it. It may not be a nine foot bully, but it could be a gossiping work colleague would we put ourselves in the way to prevent others suffering the impact? It may not be a Nazi-type regime, but it could be a culture that threatens to keep people’s mouths closed for the one voice that wants to dominate. Could we throw ourselves on the grenade of this crippling regime in miniature?
David wasn’t the only unlikely source of heroism. You look at the example of Esther in preparing to put her life at stake for her people. You look at the example of Stephen risking his life so that the truth could still be proclaimed. Many of us follow the prime example of the Son of God who Himself took on Himself the sin of the world to rescue us. So many examples not all of them written in the annals of time, but certainly recorded in the book of life.
I am very much challenged about if I would throw myself on the grenade …
(Photo by Tony Ross on Unsplash)
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 
I have to agree with your contemplation. I wonder too if I would throw myself on the grenade. I wonder if he threw himself on the grenade because he felt that was his only option, or was it because he felt he had nothing more to offer, was it to save his fellow man or was it that his exterior self, the sickly one, was not a reflection of the inner self, the one the sergeant saw. My hope would be at that moment, I would make the best choice for all present. For example, can one make the analysis, hey none of us are going to make it if we try and flee, so fleeing is useless, next option get rid of the grenade, how – me. God Bless
Thanks so much for your interaction with the blog, sir. Indeed there’s more than one way to deal with the problem with the grenade and certainly more than one motive in why we deal with it. Really good to read that, sir. Thank you.