"Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves to whom you obey, whether of sin to death, or obedience to righteousness?" Romans 6:16 LITV
IT has been a difficult month so far and doesn't seem to be looking like it is going to change status anytime soon. Disappointments abounded, unpleasant surprises peppered me like blown sand and the sheer impossibility of doing what I am doing hampered each and every step I took. Like a 'last stand.' It made me think of Custer's last stand; where misinformation and poor coordination led to the biggest defeat of US Army forces in the Indian Wars. As I researched Custer's last battle, I realized that 'last stand' is actually misapplied here and that Custer, while courageous and foolish at the same time, was a victim of procedural thinking. So, Custer's Last Stand isn't the right thought to apply to my situation….or is it?
"Last stand" is usually used as a military term to describing the event where troops holding a defensive position in the face of overwhelming odds, taking very heavy casualties to the point where they are numerically overwhelmed or are completely destroyed while also inflicting high casualties on the opponent, or the last pitched battle of a war where the position of the defending force is hopeless but the defending force considers it their duty not to surrender until forced to do so, as in the numerical overwhelming of their forces or inability to bring defensive fire due to lack of ammunition. In Custer's case, it was his miscalculation and wrong information that cause him to be overwhelmed and defeated…..outside the parameters of a last stand, but his defeat was characterized as such by the media of the time. A misnomer that continues today.
There are many famous, and real, last stands in the histories of the world and more often than not, we feel a certain honor towards the brave souls that took part in them. The Battle of Thermopylae, made 'famous' by the movie 300, was the last stand of King Leonidas I of Sparta with 300 Spartans, 700 Thespians, 400 Thebans and a few hundred others defended the rear of the retreating Greek Army against the flanking Persians led by King Xerxes I that allegedly boasted numbers in the millions. Leonidas and his troops were overwhelmed, but the resultant delay proved to be Xerxes defeat. The Papal Swiss Guards, who were reduced down to 189 from defending Vatican City from the 20,000 plus bloodthirsty troops of Emperor Charles V, mounted the steps of St Peter's Basilica to give their Pope, Clement V time to escape. When the Guard was overwhelmed, only 42 wounded remained, but the Pope escaped. The Battle of the Alamo, where the Republic of Texas found its young voice first as a nation and then as a state in the cry "Remember the Alamo," is another case of bravery in the face of utter annihilation. Santa Anna's crack Mexican troops, numbering around 2,000, surged against the old Spanish mission's 182 poorly armed rebels after a 12 day standoff and slaughtered every one of them, with the exception of the women, children and two African American slaves. This rally cry would give birth to a nation within a nation that still beats today. With the current administration in office, the Texans have thought of invoking that 'nation-hood' status once more.
It'd be the last thing the enemy would expect or want you to do.
