"Let's Roll"

Originally posted September 11, 2011

I have strength for all things in Christ Who empowers me (I am ready for anything and equal to anything through Him Who infuses inner strength into me; I am self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency). (Phil. 4:13 AMP)

All these years after the horrendous attacks

of 9/11/01, I can’t stop thinking about the words of Todd Beamer, an ordinary man whose extraordinary courage was expressed in some of his final words, words now familiar to millions : “Let’s roll.”

This post is not about Todd. But I want to expand on the spirit of those “famous last words” of his, spoken with resolve and undoubtedly more than a little fear. His determination (and that of his co-heroes) to act in the face of certain danger and probable death changed the course of history. Did it change the world? Probably not, but it changed a little of the world. The world in their immediate circle of influence. While some sorrow and pain accompanied its results, the positive and inspirational results that their courage produced will continue to ripple onward for who knows how long. All because they decided to roll.

As I pondered their bravery, I thought how afraid I would have been in that same situation…and then a tiny spark of righteous indignation flared inside me, surprising me, and I thought that maybe, just maybe, I would have unfastened my seatbelt and charged the hijackers with everything I had in me, motivated by the imperative that good must triumph over evil…and that doing something must triumph over doing nothing.

God’s Word is more than just a historical epic. It’s better than the best-ever novel, with all that makes a fiction or nonfiction story impossible to put down: Adventure. Fear. Courage. Intrigue. A love story. Joy and pain. Not one individual named in the Bible is there by coincidence. When we make an effort to read their stories—really read them and take them in, consider them in the spirit they were penned—we can see in them glimpses of ourselves: our strengths, our weaknesses, our hopes, our fears, the things we are absolutely confounded by, and the things of which we’re completely sure. And maybe, just maybe, once in awhile we take from one of them that spark that flared in me yesterday. The spark that shouts out on the inside of us, and then turns into action with firm resolve: “Let’s roll.”

Let’s look at a few: There’s Noah, who found favor in God’s eyes and in turn was assigned a monumental task that guaranteed he’d be ridiculed and persecuted…but a task that, completed by faith and hard work, would be the instrument of God’s covenant to preserve and restore the creation He had come to regret. God instructed Noah, Noah trusted God, and he said: “Let’s roll.”

God told Abraham to get up and go, to leave behind all that was dear and familiar (and comfortable) to him, and Abraham trusted God’s promise that he would be the father of a people innumerable and precious in God’s sight. Abraham took the hand of Sarah, his wife, stepped over the threshold of his comfort zone, and said, “Let’s roll.”

Moses languished in the sweltering sun of Midian, tending sheep and hiding from Egyptians intent on his execution, when God set a bush ablaze and commanded Moses to return to the land he’d fled forty years before…and to bring out a million Israelites from cruel captivity. Moses slipped back into the shoes he’d removed in the crackling presence of God Almighty, picked up his staff (now the rod of God) and said, “Let’s roll.”

Forty years later, Joshua stood on the bank of the Jordan River, in the shadow of the Ark of the Covenant as it rested on the shoulders of the ark-bearers. He and the entire nation of Israel stood there, 440 years of slavery and wandering behind them and the whole of God’s promises in front of them. Joshua raised his staff, put a tired-and-dusty foot in the swirling current, and said, “Let’s roll.”

The shepherd-boy David, a man after God’s own heart, was filled with a holy boldness that put his fear in its proper place as David faced Goliath in that battlefield. While his heart may have been pounding like a runaway train, God was with him, and of that he was sure. He looked down at the five stones in his hand, and he said, to himself and to God, “Let’s roll.”

John the Baptist returned from a barbarian’s existence in the wilderness to accomplish what he’d known for his whole life that God would require of him: he would herald the kingdom of God in the person of Jesus Christ. He knew what it would mean for him: ridicule. Gossip. People walking wide circles around him. Talk of heresy. Harrassment by soldiers and scholars. Pointing fingers and giggling children. He knew, somehow, that his end would not be one he would have chosen. But he had been chosen for this task, and he embraced it. He put down his lunchbox of locusts and he said, “Let’s roll.” He stood in the shallows of the rivers and lakes, and he announced the coming of the Messiah, and the people came. As he “rolled”, doing what was dangerous for the greater good, one day the Son of God Himself stepped down into the water with John, and suddenly it all made sense. Because John rolled.

Then there was Peter: Peter , who was impulsive and zealous and whose wild heart thirsted after Christ….Peter, whose spirit said “Let’s roll” practically before he realized it, and he was walking on top of the waves toward His Lord. That same Peter later beheld an empty, bloody cross and was flooded with shame and grief of denying Jesus. But God was about to do some “rolling” of His Own, and when the stone blocking that borrowed tomb was rolled aside, He flooded Peter with a holy zeal that he could not contain. He went on to preach Christ boldly, not only in the streets of Rome and beyond, but in the hellishness of Rome’s underground sewers-turned-dungeons, alternately warning others of the persecutions to comeand glorying in his own persecutions for the cause of Christ. Peter-- well, Peter could roll.

Others rolled for Christ: Paul comes to mind as a giant in the mix, mostly because he once rolled over followers of Jesus…but having encountered Him on a dusty road bound for more of the same, Paul lost his sight and saw the light in three short days. And then, he rolled too: in the other direction! And boy, did he roll.

So what do all of these have to do with us? Their battle cry ought to be ours. We have more in common with them than we would dare to believe. We have access to the same God-- the same power and boldness and courage-- that the spiritual giants of the Bible had. Maybe more, because we have the added encouragement of knowing they made it through. Not always unscathed, not even always alive, but exalted by God because they bowed to His plan, His will. Their reward is great. Ours can be too.

When we are afraid, when we see no light at the end of the tunnel, when we plead with lost loved ones to embrace our Lord, when we’re out of work or out of money or out of hope, when we behold a fallen world and it stands like a giant or a flood or an empire in our way, we must persevere. We can take up our staff, our stones, our wildhearted love for Jesus, then reach up for His hand, stare down the enemy, and do something… to triumph over doing nothing.

Now: let’s roll.