BITTEN TODAY – BEATEN TOMORROW
Sometimes in the ongoing struggles for the faith it appears that some warriors leave the battlefield today with only a few cuts after dealing the enemy a trouncing but then, much later, that same warrior succumbs to the very enemy that yesterday he prevailed over. Seems that somehow that warrior, though victorious today, became prey to his defeated foe of yesterday. He suffered from delayed defeat. Why, and how, could such a thing come to pass?
In the battle for righteousness it often times is not a battle of long range warfare but is mostly an up close encounter with the countering forces–and those forces have faces–and those faces have mouths–mouths that spew forth arguments. Sometimes those arguments slip beyond the faltering shield and reach vulnerable organs such as mind or emotions of the opposing warrior and when that warrior leaves the battlefield victorious — the arguments, if dwelt upon, can cause a delayed defeat.
It is like the Komodo dragons, the world’s largest lizard, who dispatch their large ungulate prey by biting and tearing flesh. Even If a prey escapes, oral bacteria inoculated into the wound reputedly induce a sepsis that augments later prey capture by the same or other lizards.
The Komodo dragon has a poisonous bite. Komodo dragons drool a lot and that saliva is rich in infectious bacteria. The infection can be fatal if untreated. If they can’t take down their prey immediately, any bite wound will become infected as they stalk their prey. Recent studies have found venomous glands in the mouth of the Komodo which emit an anti-coagulant in the bite wound which encourages continued bleeding and further weakening. When a prey animal is sufficiently weakened by infection and the venom, Komodos move in for the kill. Komodos appear to be immune to the infection from the bite of a fellow Komodo.
Some preachers later are defeated by the very “dragon” that they defeated in times past because somehow the “poison” of the argument reached the areas of the mind and found lodging there that began to weaken the spiritual system and thusly the bite, in time, bought about a delayed defeat.
Throughout the years I have, sadly so, witnessed the delayed defeat of some of yesterday’s valiant warriors for truth. I have lived long enough to see some succumb to the very foes that once they had warred against. Time fails me to enumerate all the issues and events (you can rightly fill in those situations through your own experiences from the past) but one thing is certain… when fighting for the faith beware lest the arguments of the foe cause a delayed defeat. Bitten today – beaten tomorrow.
— jlg —