Dewey Depthcharge

Good morning on this Thursday winding down toward the end of May. You may have run into this type of boss in your young life. In seeking to find the lurking subversive in his domain, this boss lays out patterns of preemptive depth charges as he speeds through the waters of his sea. Employees are either sycophants or subversives waiting to happen. So, he goes through the working day dropping bombshells, er, got off track there, depth charges. Explosions in his wake are common as the employees seek to relieve the tension just created by his passage. After all, they can't take it out on the boss, they will lose their jobs, so they blast away at each other. A perfectly functioning workplace may soon be reduced to infighting, backstabbing, and toxic words simply by the raving imagination of this (usually) authoritarian boss. The funny thing is, in blasting away with his authority in that way, the boss creates the submarines he fears!

Did Jesus do this very thing? In seeking to save, did our Lord instead create the sinners? Nope, not a case of Dewey Depthcharge at all. Jesus died to save us in His great love. If we doubt that sinners existed before Jesus came, we have an entire Old Testament of examples and stories to read and learn. Another example is our experience before salvation. Jesus did come to bring the sword. And, indeed, after salvation we go to war, or war comes upon us. Mammon rises up against the Master; the Carnal Man fights the new spirit Jesus places in us. The powers and principalities of this present darkness make war upon the Christian soldier standing there in the full armor of God. There is a similarity, but Jesus started the war out of love so great He gave His life to save. Jesus saw the sickness of sin and brought a painful cure. Dewey Depthcharge saw enemies where none existed, raised up a war that cured nothing, and brought only useless pain.

Let us follow the story of Jesus. If you are stuck in a 'Dewey's' little war, I'm heartily sorry about that. My prayers go with you.

Love in Christ,
Bucky

P.S. Why, yes, this is based on a true story in Dewey's case. However, 'Dewey' goes back many years, before I knew most of you. We need not name him or seek to find him, and I pray that he has grown over the years, for the sake of his subordinates at least.