General Butt Naked

 

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners – of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life.  1 Timothy 1:15-16

 I think I need to borrow this line from Paul. How often do you go to share something with someone knowing that they will nitpick it and argue with you? Paul knew that his audience would poopoo his confession of being the worst of sinners – but he also knew that it was true. Paul knew his own heart, really Saul’s heart from whom he had been converted and changed into Paul (Acts 9:1-19, Acts 13:9). Paul knew what he had done, thought, and intended to do further. Everyone he was talking to today only knew him as Paul the apostle, the guy who has devoted his life to Jesus and spends every moment serving Him. But Paul knew that he had a former self. He knew that Saul (his former name/self) didn’t love Jesus at all, in fact, he hated Him. Saul sought to wipe the Name of Jesus off the map and kill anyone who followed Him. Saul was filled with what he saw then as righteous anger, but he knew now to be vile hatred of love and truth.

 I can’t count the number of times that I see shock on someone’s face as I share with them a tidbit from my past. They are quick to argue with me, to justify my actions, to see me the way they want to, the way they are used to. “You couldn’t have been that bad.” “I’m sure you didn’t mean it that way.” “But I’ve always known you to be such a good and faithful person!” All nice things on the surface, but they are calling into question the truth of what I’ve shared with them. I don’t want to use the term gaslighting but… Well, you get the idea. The reality is that the nicest, best of us wasn’t always that way. Apart from the saving grace of Jesus in our lives, we are nothing but vile sinners. Elizabeth Elliot? Vile sinner until she came to know Jesus as her Lord and Savior. Mother Theresa? Yep, vile sinner too! The fact is that Jesus can take the worst of us and make them into the best of us. Speaking of vile sinners, let me tell you the story of a friend of my son’s.

Trigger warning: if you are susceptible to stories with graphic details, especially those involving children, skip to the “Here’s the Thing.”

 Joshua Blahyi is a Liberian man better known as General Butt Naked (1). There’s a sentence that will get your attention, but wait, the story gets better! At the age of 7, Joshua was inducted as a priest into a tribal religion that participated in child sacrifices and other atrocities. This group was effective in assisting the regime of Samuel Doe, a rebel that took over the government and actually ate its leaders on national television – yes, as in cannibalism. He went on to lead his own rebel faction, comprised predominantly of child soldiers, called the “Naked Base Commandos” because, you guessed it, they went into battle without any clothes on. That’s how he came to be known as General Butt Naked as well. The story goes that Joshua was visited by a demon that told him that as long as they were naked, they were invulnerable. Now whether that was true or not, they believed it enough to do it and so their opponents came to believe it as well. Try not to be intimidated when you see a hoard of naked angry men with machine guns screaming and running at you! Joshua kidnapped young children, we’re talking 10-year-olds here, and forcibly addicted them to drugs and made them fight for him. He was an evil, evil guy – or as Paul would say, “the worst of sinners.” But just like Paul, Joshua had an encounter with Jesus that changed his life. While preparing to make a human sacrifice prior to going into battle, Jesus appeared to him as a blinding light and told him that he would die unless he repented of his sins. That very moment, Joshua walked away from his life as a warlord and embarked upon a journey of redemption. Now, if you do any amount of searching you will see conflicting reports on what came of this. The many, many people who were injured by him (he has confessed to killing of 20,000 people in addition to the children that he traumatized by indoctrinating them into his army), are hard-pressed to believe his conversion story. I’m not him, and I don’t know the intimate details of his life, but here’s what I do know. In August of 2019, my son was in Liberia to oversee the opening of a new school building for a ministry we have participated in for decades. The opening date for the school was approaching quickly, and it became clear that the building would not be ready in time. Our in-country leader, Sackie, was at a loss for what to do. There was so much work to be done and it seemed impossible. Another person on the ministry’s team that was there with my son decided to call Joshua and see if he could help. Sackie would never have done this, wouldn’t have even considered it. You see, during the 15-year civil war, Sackie would sneak into Joshua’s camps and attempt to rescue children who had been capture by him. But since Joshua’s conversion, his passion has been in following the will of God and so he had set about doing what he could to make reparations for his crimes. One of these was opening the first and only addiction recovery program in the country. Here he invited young men that he had wronged to find healing, both physically, mentally and spiritually, and learn a new trade, an alternate way of earning income from fighting. This began with the very children, now adults, that He had harmed and then went on to include anyone struggling with substance abuse and trauma. He taught them to be construction workers, doing any and all jobs required in the creating of buildings as well as agricultural education. When my son’s friend called Joshua, he said he’d handle it and, true to his word, he showed up the next morning with a team of guys. They knocked out all the finishing touches needed to open the building in nothing flat! Sackie sat in amazement as He saw God bringing them full circle. Not only did Joshua show up, but he donated everything involved in his service: their time, materials and tools, which was significant as the work took over a week. He wouldn't even accept food for himself and his workers as he saw this act as an opportunity to give back, especially to Sackie. Where Sackie used to rescue children from Joshua, now Joshua was rescuing the children Sackie cared for and giving them hope and a future. If you’d like to learn more about Joshua’s story, you can watch a documentary made about him on YouTube.

Here's the Thing: Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: No longer naked, Joshua is now clothed in the righteousness of Christ. The same could be said for Paul, and for me. No, I didn’t kill 20,000 people, but I was a vile sinner undeserving of Christ’s sacrifice on my behalf. But that didn’t stop Him because He loved me. He knew that I could never achieve righteousness on my own and so He did it for me, and I will be forever grateful!

    (1)    General Butt Naked. (2022, May 17). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Butt_Naked

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