Ephesians 5:8
Holman Christian
Standard Bible (HCSB)
For you were once darkness, but now you are
light in the Lord. Walk as children of light.
Ian[ii]
was a big fellow. To my 5th grade eyes he looked like a giant. For
some reason that I no longer remember, he got mad at me and threatened to kill
me. Kids do that, of course. They say things that they don’t mean literally.
But I took him at his word, and I was scared. Through the last few hours of
class, all I could think of was his threat. I learned nothing about what Miss
Ranieri was trying to teach me. My future seemed grim. He was much
bigger and probably much stronger than I. What could I do?
As kids we had toyed around with wrestling and fighting—none
of it serious. We had come upon a grip we called the Indian Choke Lock that we
found impossible to break that made our opponent unable to breathe. I decided
to put the choke lock on Ian at my first opportunity.
When class ended that afternoon I dashed out of the
classroom first. I jumped up on a ledge a mere foot above the bottom stair and
waited. As the kids came running down the steps and out on to the field, Ian
came running by me. It should have been obvious to me that he had totally
forgotten his threat that had haunted me the whole afternoon. But all I could
see was what I considered to be my only chance to save my life—to kill him
before he could kill me.
Launching myself into the air, I landed on his back and
threw him into my Indian Choke Lock. I was surprised how well it worked. He
struggled vainly but couldn’t dislodge me; nor could he breathe. He collapsed
onto the ground, but I held on grimly. Eventually some bigger kids saw what I
was doing and came over and broke my lock on his throat. He gasped for air and
walked away very subdued. I stood up quickly watching for any retaliation. None
materialized.
Years went by. I quickly learned that physical retaliation
wasn’t the way to go. Usually one could negotiate his way out of a big threat,
especially with some serous praying about it.
Lord, thank You for the
light—the promise that You are with me and will protect me and that to love others
is a much better way.
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