Mere Missions

90 • M ere M issions : M oving F orward to M ultiply

In one particular scene, a Private named Albert Blithe, made a confession to Speirs: Pvt. Blithe:

Lieutenant . . . sir, when I landed on D-Day, I found myself in a ditch all by myself. I fell asleep. I think it was, it was . . . airsickness pills they gave us. When I woke up, I didn’t really . . . try to find my unit . . . to fight. I just . . . I just kinda stayed put.

Capt. Speirs: What’s your name, trooper? Pvt. Blithe: I’m Blithe, sir. Albert Blithe. Capt. Speirs: You know why you hid in that ditch, Blithe? Pvt. Blithe: I was scared. Capt. Speirs: We’re all scared. You hid in that ditch because

you think there’s still hope. But Blithe, the only hope you have is to accept the fact that you’re already dead. And the sooner you accept that, the sooner you’ll be able to function as a soldier’s supposed to function. Without mercy, without compassion, without remorse. All war depends upon it.

Not everything that Capt. Speirs said to Pvt. Blithe has a direct correlation to us as Kingdom people who are engaged in spiritual warfare. We are people of hope (1 Cor. 13.13), mercy (Luke 6.36), compassion (Eph. 4.32). There is an underlying principle though, from Speirs, that resonates to the core of life in Christ, and that is to “accept the fact that you’re already dead.” Paul the Apostle said the same truth to the community of believers in Colossae when he wrote, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right