They would holler it at us.
"If you get knocked down, get back up!"
"Keep moving!"
"Don't surrender!"
Now, think about something.
How many old Westerns have you watched where somebody gets shot one time, grabs his chest, falls to the ground, and dies?
It happens so often in the movies that people begin to associate getting shot with immediately being finished.
Our instructors wanted to break that thinking.
They wanted us to understand that being wounded did not automatically mean the fight was over. We were being trained to respond rather than surrender.
And the more I think about those days, the more I recognize a powerful spiritual illustration.
Some of us have allowed life to convince us that because we've been hit, we're finished.
You got hit with grief.
You got hit with disappointment.
You got hit with betrayal.
You got hit with financial trouble.
You got hit with a diagnosis that frightened you.
And somewhere along the way, you began to believe that you would never recover.
Perhaps you even started defining yourself by what happened to you.
"I'm the one whose marriage failed."
"I'm the one who lost everything."
"I'm the one who made that terrible mistake."
"I'm the one who never got over it."
But listen to what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4:9:
"Struck down, but not destroyed."
Those are powerful words.
Paul was not speaking as someone who had lived a sheltered, comfortable life. He had been beaten, imprisoned, rejected, threatened, and persecuted.
He knew what suffering looked like.
Yet he refused to confuse suffering with abandonment by God.
And that's where the illustration from my law enforcement days becomes especially meaningful.
When our instructors told us to keep going, they were teaching us to rely on training and conditioning.
But the Christian life is different in one essential way.
Our ultimate confidence is not in our own toughness. It is in God's faithfulness.
In 2 Corinthians 4:7, Paul explains that we have this treasure in jars of clay so that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
Think about that.
We are fragile vessels.
We get tired. We become discouraged. We make mistakes. Sometimes we break down.
But the treasure inside us is greater than the weakness of the vessel.
That treasure is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
So when I say, "Get up," I'm not telling you to manufacture strength you don't possess.
I'm telling you to trust the One whose strength is sufficient.
Maybe you've been sitting on the sidelines because you were hurt in church.
Maybe somebody disappointed you.
Maybe you tried to serve, and things didn't work out the way you expected.
And now you've decided it's safer not to get involved.
I understand that feeling.
But don't let yesterday's wounds determine tomorrow's obedience.
Perhaps your next step is not a dramatic one. Maybe it's forgiving someone. Maybe it's returning to worship. Maybe it's opening your Bible again or reaching out to someone who can help.
Whatever that step is, take it with the Lord's help.
And remember this: recovering from a wound takes time. Getting back up does not mean ignoring the injury or pretending the pain isn't real.
It means refusing to believe that the injury has the final word.
Jesus Christ has the final word.
So when life knocks you down, remember what Paul said.
You may have been struck down.
But you have not been destroyed.
Pastor Steve Goode
Northside Baptist Church | Greensboro, NC
northsidegreensboro.com
