SKEDADDLING

From My Perspective - - - 

Have you ever had to skedaddle? Do you remember why skedaddling seemed the best choice for you at the time? What is being implied by the one choosing to skedaddle from a particular place at a particular moment of time? What was the original application of the word? When does it most likely occur today? If one has never physically skedaddled, after a period of reflection, one may wish that he/she had done so. Skedaddling means: “to run away; flee; fly; depart hastily; the verb ‘to skedaddle,’ was revived during the Civil War to suggest precipitous flight.” The one who skedaddled from the battle was noted for cowardice, desertion or dereliction of duty. 

George F. Will in a column posted on October 1, 2014 used two terms of evaluation for the point he is making: “A New Case For Congressional Term Limits.” One evaluation states: “What has actually transpired since Barack Obama's September 10 address to the nation has been, Corbin and Parks argue, “a parody” of propriety. In his address about the Islamic State (which did not mention Khorasan, the asserted imminent threat that supposedly justified acting without Congress), Oba,ma spoke to the public, not to the public’s institutional embodiment, Congress, whose support he said would be “welcome,” implying that it is unnecessary. Next, the administration argued with itself about what it was that Obama was going to do without congressional approval. (This was before his press secretary identified it as war.) Then the House tacked onto a spending bill its approval of arming certain Syrians (the “vetted” moderates?) and dispersed. The Senate, having added its approval without discernible deliberation, also skedaddled.” His second evaluation states: “Obama is demonstrating in foreign policy what he has redundantly demonstrated in domestic policy — a supine Congress is superfluous to governance. Which makes this autumn surreal: Why are so many people so eager to serve in a negligible Congress?”

He has introduced an additional descriptive term when he uses the word “supine.” It might actually be a better choice if one “skedaddled” rather than being found as one who is “supine.” Supine means: “lying on the back, face or front upward; inactive, passive, or inert, especially from indolence or indifference.” At this point, he quotes: "Aristotle teaches that no one becomes a tyrant to get in out of the cold"; in contemporary terms, no one runs for president for the upmarket house and the jet airplane. But increasingly, there is evidence that members of Congress do seek office for something other than the power, for power is something with which they are not merely willing but often eager to part.” George Will concludes, “This reinforces Congress’s self­-marginalization: Congress increasingly attracts people uninterested in reversing its institutional anemia. They are undeterred by — perhaps are attracted by — the fact that they will not be responsible for important decisions such as taking the nation into war. As Congress becomes more trivial, its membership becomes less serious.”

Let’s apply “skedaddle” and “supine” to the church in general and professing christian people in particular. Despite the instruction and directive of Ephesians 6:10-20 to be fully prepared for and engaged in spiritual warfare, there are many who will either skedaddle or be deemed supine at the crucial time and place for engagement. The intensity of the conflict has been adequately described. The professing christian has made a verbal commitment to make a stand against the forces of evil but many choose to flee the danger. Jesus was discussing the cost involved for the one who would follow Him. In Luke 9:57-62, He is addressing the varying priorities of those who indicate they might be willing to follow Him. Jesus is challenges the term some used and their motivation for using: “Let me FIRST go…” The bottom-line for Jesus Christ then, as it is now, is given in Luke 9:62, “Jesus said: ”No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” He is addressing those who would skedaddle and those who choose to be supine. Are you “fit for the kingdom of God” today? If not, why not? Consider these things with me.