Paintball with Hezbollah

I'm sorry for the way I've been,
God please wash away my sin
Look down upon my circumstance and
Please give me a second chance.
I am just a man - I am just a man, Undercover

Recently I heard a report on NPR about some journalists and an ex-Army Ranger that challenged members of Hezbollah to paintball. It was absolutely fascinating to hear of the account and the events that transpired both pre- and post-paintball. Now I do believe that Hezbollah's place in history is well-cemented and is a terrible, sordid one, but their specific war with the nation of Israel and Jews and Christians in general is not the point of this post at all. I found the ex-Army Ranger's observations and the powers-that-be in Hezbollah's reaction to the whole event to be much more applicable to me and my life.

The Army Ranger's summary of their opponents in the paintball match is best expressed in a quote from the NPR article:

"One thing he now believes, [Andrew] Exum said, is that 'at the human level' the men he met were 'just very similar to ... the 18- and 19-year-old Americans that I led into combat.'"

Well, the fact that this happened at all and that members of Hezbollah would trade paintballs with some Americans did not sit well with the brass of the group. By the journalists' reports they were absolutely adamant that no one in the group would stoop so low to participate in such a vulgar activity. The journalists' motive to do this was to try to penetrate the secretive group and see them more clearly. I think they did much more than that.

I think they revealed, to me, that I am absolutely dogged by the fact that I am a human. I am a man. No matter what I call myself, no matter how much of my life I surrender to the Holy Spirit there is one inescapable fact: I am a man in need of both salvation and salvations. I needed to be saved from Hell and need to be saved from making my life one here and now. Thanks be to God that He is in love with me so much that He both wanted and continually wants to do this for me.

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