The Determination Weapon: Christians, What Big Teeth We Have!  

By Drake Hunter | Commentary, Rocky Mountain Voice

“Grandmother, what big teeth you have!”
“All the better to eat you with, my dear.”

Little Red Riding Hood went to Grandma’s house and found a wolf in her bed. He had Grandma’s clothes, Grandma’s place in the house, and enough manners to call her “my dear.” Then he opened his mouth, and all hell broke loose.

I thought about those teeth when my good friend Heidi Ganahl ran for governor of Colorado in 2022. 

Some of the meanest, most malicious words I heard that election season came from people who called themselves Christians. I heard it again this past election. 

We have plenty of voices telling us what to think about politics, science, education, law, art, and religion (the voices of Colorado). But when a Christian opens his mouth in any of those conversations, how much of Jesus do we hear?

Jesus said we would know people by their fruit. He also warned that some would call Him “Lord, Lord” while refusing to do His Father’s will (Matthew 7:15–23). 

So I’ll say it plainly. When someone makes a habit of cruelty and uses the name of Jesus to justify it, I have good reason to question whether that person is following Jesus. And then there’s the question I’d rather leave out. What big teeth do I have? 

I can spot malice in a hurry when it’s aimed at a friend. I’ve had a harder time spotting it in myself; that is the beam in my own eye when I think somebody deserves it.

You can build a pretty good wall around your garden and still find a serpent inside. Just ask Adam and Eve. Or come by the Hunter home. We had plans. Sherrie’s cancer wasn’t on the list. The serpent came anyway. And once it was here, I still had to get up each morning and decide how I was going to love her that day. I wanted answers. Some days, what Sherrie needed from me was my attention. I could give her that, and that’s what I gave her to fight the serpent in our reality.

That’s one reason Jesus’ word daily gets me. 

In Luke 9:23–25, He tells us to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily, and follow Him. Repentance takes humility, the willingness to step off familiar ground toward a good we can’t yet see or is unknown. Denying ourselves takes determination, the willingness to keep following Jesus when doing so costs us something. We learn to do that by practicing it today, in the house we live in and in the conversations we’re already having.

I believe much of the conservative movement has made a fundamental mistake. We’ve focused so much on where people will go when they die that we’ve neglected to teach them how to live with Jesus now. 

As Dallas Willard says in Renovation of the Heart, and I wholeheartedly agree, “The way to get as many people into heaven as you can is to get heaven into as many people as you can.” 

Again, to be clear, this is not happening in our marriages, homes, churches, and communities; therefore, the movement’s fundamental mistake is reality.  

Only full-throttle discipleship in “The Art of War—Jesus Style” is the resolve, or should I say, the redemptive way to the Highest Good. It begins with the fear of the Lord (Divine Worldview), seeing God for who He is and recognizing Him as the Highest Good. 

Through His grace and Truth, Jesus teaches us to see people differently. As we practice His commands (Divine Lifeview), He forms our character and gives us the wisdom to act when the pressure is on. Eventually, someone ought to be able to hear the difference when we open our mouths — that is, the grace and Truth of Jesus.

Jesus asks what good it does to gain the whole world and lose yourself. 

Well, come to think of it, I’ve been tempted to make that trade for the last word. How about you? 

Tomorrow I may have something hard to say, and following Jesus may require me to say it. However, it may also require me to give up the pleasure of intentionally hurting with the last word and instead do what our Lord and Savior said and did, “Forgive them, for they don’t know what they do.” 

That’s what I mean by The Art of War—Jesus Style. We practice Jesus’ instructions and commands until the virtues He forms in us become habits we can draw on when someone squeezes us or places us under pressure. 

Those virtues are our weapons. 

Humility helps me admit when I’m wrong. Determination helps me tell the truth, even when it costs me, and love the person who would rather hear something else. 

When malice and lies come at us from the wolf with teeth bared, may we fight with the Lamb’s love and the sword of Truth to restore order and make redemption possible through the only reality that makes sense now and forever.

As always, God is here. God is able. God is good.

Editor’s note: Opinions expressed in commentary pieces are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the management of the Rocky Mountain Voice, but we support the author’s constitutional right to express those opinions.