During the war (WWII I believe) a young pilot was on a mission, in which he was flying solo. This was one of his first missions, so as you can imagine he was more than a little nervous. Things went all right for a little while, but then he heard something that made his nervousness turn into sheer terror. He heard what seemed to him like a munching sound, and when he looked down, sure enough, there was a rat making lunch out of the wires of his plane. Being several miles up in the air, and knowing that every wire on the plane was critical for his survival, he did the one thing his Momma had taught him to do - he prayed.

As he prayed for guidance, he heard a still small voice inside of him say, "fly higher and kill the rat." At first this did not make sense, but as the munching grew louder, so did the voice inside of him. This time he heard, "put on your oxygen mask, fly higher and kill the rat." Then it registered with him what the Holy Spirit was saying. If he flew higher, the oxygen in the air would be much, much less. With his mask on, nothing would happen to him, but the rat would die due to lack of oxygen, and the wires of the plane would be safe.

He did as he was told, soon the rat was dead, and he completed his mission with no further incidents.

We all have things in our lives that, from time to time, eat away at us. Most of the time, we tend to try to rid ourselves of these problems in our own strength, and on the level of the one(s) perptrating the problem. As Jesus stated in the Sermon on the Mount about turning the other cheek, walking the extra mile, and giving your cloak as well as your coat, and Paul mentioned in 1 Corinthians 6:7 about not taking fellow believers to court, we must opt to take the high road, not fight our enemy on his own turf. We must follow Jesus example and love our enemy and those who persecute us. If we don't the "rat" will constantly come back and chew on our wires. Love, unconditional love, destroys his ability to do that.

A True Story of True Love-

In 1939, or maybe 1940, the Nazis marched through a town in Western Europe, dragging all those of Jewish descent into the streets. The vast majority of those were killed instantly, but there were a few, very rare exceptions. One such exception recalled what had happened on that fateful day, and the crucial decision which saved his life, and ultimately preserved his health as well.

This survivor was a young man with a beautiful young wife and three small and adorable children. The Nazis broke into their home and forced the young family into the street with the rest of the Jewish people in the town. Everyone was lined up against the wall with the exception of this young man, because he could speak German, and therefore, was considered to be worth sparing. He was forced to watch as his neighbors, and his precious wife and children were gunned down at point-blank range, simply because of their ethnic heritage. As horrible and devastating as this situation was, the young man said later that he made a conscious decision right then and there not to hate these Nazis, but to see them as victims, as captives to a power they could not control, and therefore love them unconditionally.

He was taken to a concentration camp with everyone else whose life was spared, and there he subsisted on a cube of bread and a small cup of broth each day. While there, he often gave what little food he had to someone else whom he deemed in greater need than he was. This did not go unnoticed by either his fellow inmates, or the prison guards. He always treated the guards with utmost courtesy and respect, no matter how he was treated in return and soon, he had gained their respect as well. This didn't mean he was given any special privileges though. He existed on the same level as the other Jewish people in the camp. The difference was in his attitude.

When he was released at the end of the war, in 1945, the liberators were surprised to see how healthy he was and how relatively well he had fared. They assumed from his condition that he had just arrived a short time ago, but soon learned that he had been there for six long years. When asked the secret to his survival, he told the people inquiring about the tragedy he had endured and that crucial decision he had made. Because of the humility the love had wrought in him, others had to tell of his sharing his food with those in need.

Given that he endured the exact same treatment and conditions that his fellow inmates did, the only conclusion is that it was his decision to love his persecutors unconditionally that saved and preserved him.

In this day of extreme emphasis on self-esteem, self-worth, pampering the inner child, clinging on to past traumas and hurts in order to find excuses for our sometimes inappropriate behavior, even among strong Christians in the church, it would do us well to consider this man's story and learn from it.