A Wanted Man

by Cruise, Jason;

  So we live with the lull, never thinking about the storm of combat that confronts us daily. Because the combat isn’t loud, with bullets flying everywhere and bombs going off beside us, our senses are dulled; but that doesn’t change the fact that combat exists where we live.

  It’s just not chaotic, or so it seems.

  SET UP

  Most of us, certainly myself included, never realize that we are being set up and pursued.

  I believe that we are lulled into being comfortable with life outside the wire by living amid so many nonthreatening daily distractions.

  Like me, you have a career path demanding a massive amount of your time and mental energy.

  Most all of us live overloaded lives, in constant distraction, while navigating that very same life in occupied enemy territory.

  You may have kids, as I do. You love them dearly, and you are consumed with providing for them and keeping them on track. Like me, you live in a world where technology is overbearing. We call those little devices “mobile phones,” but they are far from mobile, for we are chained to the tiny tyrants 24/7.

  Try to see if you can walk away from life without a cell phone. Truthfully you could lose your job, because your employer might require that you remain accessible upon demand.

  Push through the fog and see your life as you live it in this very moment.

  Most all of us live overloaded lives, in constant distraction, while navigating that very same life in occupied enemy territory.

  Now think about how easy it is for a thief, a robber, or an assassin to operate in a climate of distraction.

  Operatives thrive in that environment, and some operatives are even known to create an environment of distraction to make their job easier.

  Condition White is how the devil makes his money. He just keeps distracting you, often giving you what you want to make his job easier.

  Life outside the wire means that every man who is “in Christ” lives, walks, and operates in hostile territory.

  NAVIGATING LIFE OUTSIDE THE WIRE

  In the past several years, I’ve learned a valuable truth: slowing down and camping out in a passage of scripture offers some of the most rewarding spiritual terrain I traverse.

  When you’re not in a hurry to move on, it’s amazing what you see. As I said earlier, I have read and reread all the good books that have changed my life on some level.

  It’s mind-boggling to me what happens when I simply let one area of truth saturate my life over and over again. So I did that with the books of 1 and 2 Peter not long ago.

  It was during duck season (I remember that for some reason). I would get up, fix some coffee about 5:00 a.m., and then for about an hour study this one section of scripture from Peter’s pen, poring over it again and again.

  Here’s the driving key—the “secret sauce” that Peter was trying to get into his readers’ heads: a Christ follower is a temporary resident in a foreign country.

  Peter even started out his first letter trying to drill this idea into his readers by saying, “To those who reside as aliens, scattered throughout…” (1 Peter 1:1).

  His audience contained a large number of messianic Jews. Many of them were new Christ followers who had been pushed out of Jerusalem due to the persecution of Christians.

  Don’t miss this.

  It is not a history lesson.

  It’s the ball game.

  Understanding the historical background of Peter’s letters is critical to understanding the groundwork of the enemy in your life today.

  The Gospel was spreading. People following Jesus were being forced to recalibrate the gears in their heads on how to live everyday life.

  Life as they knew it—life’s traditions, life’s flow, what they had been told to believe—all of it was changing. And now, to avoid being killed for their belief system, many were fleeing their homeland.

  So Peter used words and phrases that only a traveler would understand. He spoke to them as fellow Jews, because Peter himself was a Jew. He spoke to them as a man who knew what it felt like to be persecuted for his beliefs, because Jews were persecuted then, and they still are now.

  Imagine being brought up in a way of life that was now changing before your very eyes—as referenced in 1 Peter 1:7–18, where Peter said, “Conduct yourselves…knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver and gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers.”

  Spiritually you’re alive and you’ve found purpose in following Jesus, but you’re paying for it, too.

  Peter didn’t sugarcoat this hard truth for his people. Some were messianic Jews and some were new Christians outside the Jewish tribes, yet all had come to faith in Christ, and they had to live out that faith in a spiritually hostile world.

  So that’s why we find Peter using words that could help his readers cope with persecution:

  1 Peter 1:1—“aliens, scattered throughout”

  1 Peter 1:13—“prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit”

  1 Peter 1:17—“during the time of your stay on earth”

  1 Peter 2:11—“I urge you as aliens and strangers”

  1 Peter 4:1—“arm yourselves”

  1 Peter 5:8—“be on the alert”

  2 Peter 3:17—“be on your guard”

  Col. Jeff Cooper perhaps took some cues from Peter for his Color Code for Readiness. We find Peter doing everything he could to encourage God’s people to keep their minds alive and maintain perspective in a hostile world.

  Look at what he wrote in 2 Peter 2:1–3, 17–19:

  But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of the truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep’

  These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved. For speaking out arrogant words of vanity they entice by fleshly desires, by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error, promising them freedom while they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved.

  Messages are all around, competing for your loyalty.

  And that brings us to the question: Who is the author?

  Who would be behind that sort of environment?

  More importantly, what is this enemy after?

  3 : BRUTAL FACT #3

  THE POWER OF OBSESSION

  Before you read any further, watch “Brutal Fact #3: The Power of Obsession” at JasonCruise.com/WantedMan.

  “The thief comes only…”

  It came in a quiet moment for me. I had studied Jesus’ words on shepherds and sheep and hostile territory for months, letting these truths sink in deep, and yet somehow I’d overlooked it.

  One simple word: only.

  The thief isn’t just active; his motive is crystal clear.

  “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10).

  The devil has no other agenda. He is concerned with only one thing: bringing you down.

  The legendary theologian F. F. Bruce said it well: “The thief’s designs on the sheep are wholly malicious; the good shepherd’s plans for them are entirely benevolent.”1

  Jokes about the devil may be fun for late-night talk show comedians, but there’s nothing comical about the reality of what the devil is doing when it comes to the subject of you.

  The devil has no other agenda. He is concerned with only one thing: bringing you down.

  Shroud the devil’s pursuits any way you want and wink at his schemes, but that will have no bearing whatsoever on how serious he is about destroying everything your life touches.

  While you and I may live overloaded lives, Sa
tan does not.

  He has one thing on his mind: you.

  THE ORIGINAL TERRORIST

  The devil doesn’t hang out in full demonic form for all to see. No. He lives in the shadows, like bin Laden, operating his agents from the back channels. Satan is a terrorist who stays close but simultaneously just far enough away so as not to be recognized until the bomb goes off. Then he proudly takes credit while dancing in the street over your demise.

  Many years ago I was listening to a US Army combat veteran talk about his experiences in the Middle East. He had seen several combat tours in the post–9/11 era while fighting global terrorism.

  He said, and I’m quoting loosely here from memory—but a good memory—“For those Americans who hate the idea of us being in Iraq, Afghanistan, or having our troops deployed trying to liberate Kuwait, or doing whatever we do in terms of military operations in the Middle East at large—those dissenting Americans see our deployments as politically motivated oil wars. What most Americans never have seemed to understand is that for terrorists, this is not a political war. I learned that from being over there in combat. For them, it’s a holy war. And they are not going to stop.”

  While you and I may live overloaded lives, Satan does not. He has one thing on his mind: you.

  Americans don’t like the idea that anyone would hate us—I mean really, really hate us. We can’t understand that.

  It just doesn’t make sense to the average American mind that someone would hate us so much that they’d want to kill us.

  But I can promise you this: the devil wants you dead. Because he cannot control life and death, however, he must settle for carnage.

  Therefore he is obsessed with wounding you. Deeply. Painfully. With scars to show as trophies.

  OBSESSIONS

  My dad hunted and fished, and he did both well.

  Dad loved to hunt, yes, but hunting took on a different path for me. I became obsessed with it at an early age. Even when I was just ten, there wasn’t anything about hunting I didn’t love.

  I loved the gear, the elements, the different weapons. Most of all I loved the pursuit. It was the chase that I craved the most.

  The problem with hunting—or I should say, with hunting well—is that if you want to be good at it, it’s a consistent process.

  Anything you want to be good at can easily become an obsession. Those who are obsessed are driven, and driven individuals have resolve.

  Growing up as a hunter, I knew the power of obsession from a young age. I watched some of my father’s friends who were great hunters experience success upon success in terms of trophy bucks they took down year after year.

  Big-buck hunters readily fit the description of the obsessed. They will tell you that they are planning tree stand arrangements, interception points, and food plots year-round. Big-buck hunters are scouting in March when trails are still easy to see. They are researching food-plot nutrition systems in early spring. They are determining which parts of their farms they will plant and which parts of their farms they won’t even enter so as to provide deer sanctuary.

  Then there’s preparation.

  Every solid bow hunter I know shoots his bow year-round on some level. In fact, my friend Max, who is by far the best bow hunter I’ve ever seen, shoots three to four arrows a day just for muscle memory. Every. Single. Day.

  Max and I were on an elk hunt in Colorado years ago. We met up around noon at a predetermined vantage point so that we could walk down the mountain together. I asked him, “Max, how far would you shoot at a bull? I mean, if there weren’t really high winds to deflect your arrow’s trajectory, how far would you feel comfortable shooting knowing that you’d kill him?”

  Max is a very humble and quiet man, but without even thinking about it, he said, “I wouldn’t hesitate at seventy yards.”

  TALENT COMES FROM A RECKLESS OBSESSION TO BE THE BEST

  And that’s what you and I face with our enemy. He’s obsessed, and because he’s obsessed, he’s talented.

  He’s the very best—the best who’s ever existed—at ruining a man’s legacy.

  He’s obsessed, and because he’s obsessed, he’s talented.

  He’s toppled both the wealthy and the destitute without regard to stature. Coaches, players, politicians, priests, preachers, atheists, dads, granddads, students, professors, all men everywhere—those are his prospective clients. He has no prejudices or preferences about whom he wrecks. He pursues a vengeance devoid of mercy.

  4 : BRUTAL FACT #4

  EVERY GOOD THIEF IS BOTH

  PATIENT AND INTENT

  Before you read any further, watch “Brutal Fact #4: Every Good Thief Is Both Patient and Intent” at JasonCruise.com/WantedMan.

  “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10, emphasis added).

  In looking at how the enemy pursues us, the idea of stealing, killing, and destroying is where obsession takes a turn. A turn for the worst.

  It makes me think of the dog that chases your truck when you pass his home. He’s lying in the front yard, sees you coming down the road, and stands up. You know what’s coming.

  He’s going to chase after you and let you know that you’d better not stop your moving hunk of metal in front of his lair.

  Often I think to myself, Ol’ boy, what if you caught me? What if you just got lucky and latched on with that mouth of yours? What would you do with a mouthful of Tundra moving at fifty-seven miles per hour?

  In reality a yard dog has no clue what he’d do if he caught your vehicle. He’s barking because that’s what he does.

  There’s normally nothing behind it—no intent for harm, just harassment.

  The same is not true of the devil.

  He fully intends to catch you, and he knows exactly what to do with a mouthful of metal. Unlike a yard dog, he has a very real intent for collateral damage. He is out to steal, kill, and destroy—to take something important and of value from you.

  What the devil and the yard dog do have in common is that both are patient and strategic in how they wait for their prey. A yard dog positions himself near the road—always. He wants the best sight line for an oncoming opportunity.

  I’ve noticed over my years of driving familiar country roads that the same dog on the same road always lies down and waits in the same place for vehicles to drive by so he can do his deal once again.

  It is here, my brothers, that I want you to open your eyes and clear your minds, for this is where the average evangelical male has failed to connect the dots regarding how our enemy operates.

  I am in my forties. Which means that, like you, I have been given the ignoble gift of watching many men fall to the enemy who pursues our hearts.

  Many times I’ve met a guy for lunch or been asked to come to his office or to meet him somewhere off the beaten path discreetly so that we could discuss some failure in his personal life. In those times, as I thought through common denominators linking a man’s failures, I began to see a trend—a simple reality that I just hadn’t seen before until a few years ago.

  I believe Satan’s most misunderstood, unknown, truly secret weapon is this: patience.

  What I began to realize after hearing stories of failure from my brothers and colleagues was that none of their failures—none of them—happened overnight.

  Stop for a second and let that sink in.

  Please.

  No man gets up one day and says to himself, You know, today seems like a great day to hook up with another woman, get naked, have sex, ruin my marriage, destroy my family, and lose my job due to my life imploding.

  No reasonable man thinks or acts that way.

  I cannot think of a single man I’ve had a conversation with who was navigating the aftermath of failure who actually could not, on at least some level, point back to a season in life when he knowingly began to sabotage his own journey.

  I have asked many of them, “When did all of this start?” It blows my mind how specific they are with their answe
rs. So many men I know can recall with vivid detail when they began the digression:

  “It was when I took this new role at my job and started looking at her more than I should.”

  “It was when I began to start drinking again, the night of a class reunion. That’s when it all started to fall apart.”

  “It was when I chose work over my wife that things began to slowly deteriorate.”

  Time and time again, men have told me they can look back and see the signs of being set up by their enemy.

  I believe Satan’s most misunderstood, unknown, truly secret weapon is this: patience.

  NOBODY SEES THE DEVIL AS AN ENEMY WHO IS PATIENT

  Patience allows someone, a thief especially, to be creative.

  I’ve heard many people over the years say, “I’m creative under pressure.” I disagree. I’ve been a writer, speaker, and media producer for far too long to believe that anymore. People are not creative under pressure, because creativity takes time. People under pressure are simply good at improv.

  They learn to improvise under pressure, but improv is not creativity.

  This brings me to my point: only after resting on this verse for many months did something float to the surface of my heart. That’s what happens when you marinate something: things soak in over time.

  What rose to the surface was that a good thief rarely operates on impulse.