I love stories. They have the power to convey truth in a deep and meaningful way, many times when we are least expecting it. One of my favorites conveys the need to publicly commit to live life as a Christian.
Stuart Briscoe, the former pastor of Elmbrook Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, tells a story from his growing-up years in Great Britain. I first heard the story “Nail Your Colors to the Mast” through a radio broadcast, although this summary comes from the website www.godhungry.org.
Briscoe was raised as a Christian and joined the Royal Marines at the age of 17. A career soldier and mentor of Briscoe’s, Captain H.C. May, provided him with some challenging advice as Briscoe was getting ready to begin his military service:
Briscoe writes “… he told me, ‘You must nail your colours to the mast. Right away!’ As I had never heard the expression before, he explained that in the old days when a ship of the Royal Navy sailed into battle, the colours of the sovereign were hoisted to the top of the mast and remained there throughout the conflict unless they were defeated or surrendered. Then, of course, the colours were replaced either with the white flag of surrender or the colours of the conquering sovereign. But with that in mind, some naval captains would order the colours to be nailed to the mast so that defeat and surrender were shown to be out of the question; they would rather ‘go down with all flags flying.’
‘You must show your fellow marines right away whose you are and whom you serve, Stuart,’ my military hero explained forcefully. Too forcefully for my liking. ‘Did you do that?’ I asked timidly. ‘Yes, I did,’ he replied. ‘The first night in the barrack room I knelt by my bed and prayed.’ ‘What happened?’ I ventured. ‘They threw boots at me,’ he replied casually, as if this were an everyday occurrence. ‘What did you do?’ I queried, hardly daring to ask. Looking at me as if the answer was so obvious he was surprised I should ask, he replied, ‘I cleaned them and returned them, of course!’”
I am publicly committed to follow Jesus. I am compelled to live my life as a believer because of the truth of the gospel. Surrender cannot be an option in the battle for my faith.
