Code of Honor

Recently I saw the movie, Lone Survivor. And while theaters in Texas are canceling other movies to make way to show more of this picture, I want to share with you my spiritual insights on this film. Let me give you a brief story line.

It’s an astounding tale about US Navy Seals in Afghanistan during a military operation and their code of honor. These men are simply amazing! Their stamina, strength, and endurance are all phenomenal. I don’t know if you’ve listened to the Shulamite Podcast episodes where we discussed the Discovery Channel’s program Surviving the Cut, but the men in this movie were just like the ones vetted in that show. They’re the best of the best!

Well, these men live by a military code. They rely on it. This code unifies them as a brotherhood.  And during this film you see it tested and proven to the bitter end. Though Lone Survivor is raw and violent, I recommend it. It’s greatly impacting and made me feel honored to be an American with such beautiful men standing on our walls.

The Navy Seals’ code of honor is established by their military training. To live by a code, you must exist by that set standard. A code has to be law, or the code is not real. Literally, a code is a rule of living and a belief system for which you’re willing to die. If you fluctuate within the breeze of circumstance, then you don’t have an actual code. A code is unchanging, unwavering and deeply entrenched. It’s the standard and foundation in which you choose to stand.

But you know, oddly enough, we all live by a code. How can I say that we all live by a code?  It’s simple—because we do.  Our code might not be a military sense of duty, or a tribal sense of honor, but we all do live by a standard that gages our lives, values and actions. Our personal code might be to self, to family or to a religious group – you fill in your blank – but it is there. And it doesn’t have to be noble.

In my past, I have had a code of saving self. All others were sacrificed to my goal. I, quite frankly, feared death and I did everything I could to avoid it. It was an ingrained code, an established belief, all to save self. True it’s a tremendously sad and rather paltry regulation to honor, but it was mine.

My point is that we all have a code – maybe unspoken, but all together real. We each live by it and we defend it with every resource we have available. So this is why we must know what our established code is—because we will sacrifice everything else for it.

So as I reflect on these valiant men portrayed in this film, I think about the firmness of my own code.  And my current code to honor is something that I am willing to lay my life down for – and do. If you know me well, you know it.  I evidence it every day. It’s higher than my wretched self-saving vow; it’s now in Christ’s Life and choice for me.

A code for self is simple and lazy. Lie back, and it will just happen.  Though it will cost you everything of true life, it will cost you nothing in giving. Yet a true moral code is for something higher than self, and it will be tested! It has to be, to be strengthened.

Ask Christ what your established code is.  If everyone around you is going to pay for it to be lived out, isn’t it important to know what it is exactly? Though it will be tested, it will also be proved, and if it is of Christ, it will be Divinely Eternal.