What other way would you start off your reading schedule after burying your head under Nikita other than The Chocolate Soldiers by C.T. Studd. I must admit that no matter how much watching makes me feel like a slave, I couldn’t stop watching Nikita.
Just like Nikita, I hated Amanda. So did the writer of the play. That’s why we all buried her alive. I’m happier for Alex and Owen though. (Or is it Sam? I prefer Owen. The same way I prefer Alex to Alexandra Udinov…does it matter?). Cheers to happily ever after. Alex was my favorite. I loved Owen-hopeless romantic. I liked the whole team: Michael, Nikita, Seymour, Sonya, Ryan. True heroes, true soldiers. Right?
Talking about soldiers; C.T. Studd writes about Heroism- The Lost Chord of Christianity. The Chocolate Soldier. An interesting title both metaphorically and literally. More interesting is the content.
A Chocolate soldier according to Studd is a soldier without Heroism. What a tragedy!
In peace true soldiers are captive lions, fretting in their cages. War gives them their liberty and sends them, like boys bounding out of school, to obtain their heart’s desire or perish in the attempt. Battle is the soldier’s vital breath! Peace turns him into a stooping asthmatic. War makes him a whole man again, and gives him the heart, strength, and vigor of a hero. EVERY TRUE CHRISTIAN IS A SOLDIER of Christ – a hero “par excellence”! Braver than the bravest – scorning the soft seductions of peace and her oft-repeated warnings against hardship, disease, danger, and death, whom he counts among his bosom friends. – C.T Studd
The possibility of chocolate soldiers is the worst possibility in any military basement. Especially, if that basement is your day to day life. We all have fights. A battle to win. As long as our hearts keep beating, we will always have a battle to win and possibly a World War III to prevent. A cold war to stop. Treaties to make. Deals to push through. Patriotism to show. That’s why every day we fight, to be our own heroes. All these fights keep us alive.
War is what keeps soldiers alive; just like missions kept Division running and Nikita fighting. There was always a mission and they fought. There will always be a fight that will require you to fight.
Studd’s list of true heroes include David- The man whose brothers benched in the middle of an active war and Mark (Acts 13:13). They both found their way back to the fight. Sometimes, you will lose your way. Other times you will lose the fight, get yourself wounded. Lose your credibility and many times you will not want to engage. Or just like Jonah, you’ll chose Tarshish over Nineveh.
Life is a war. So is Christianity (At least, according to Studd…Not that I disagree).
The only way you can cool the heat of the battlefield is by being in the field yourself. Maybe that’s why Alex got herself back to drugs just to be at the field. The pain of a wounded soldier is in the safety the whole army. The joy of winning a fight is in the fight.
The question is; what are your fights? Are you in the battlefield or you are benched? If you are wise enough to have dipped yourself into the den of lions like Daniel or into the fiery furnace like his three friends; how are you fighting?
My hope is that you be a soldier with heroism. For yourself, your country and for the world. And of course; to our Christian soldiers- For Christ.
