“Sounding the Retreat”
Part One of Retreating from and Returning to Blogging
By Dan McDonald
Have you ever felt like you had to
“sound the retreat”? A few weeks ago,
just before the Lenten season, I felt a need to retreat from blogging my
ideas. I intentionally decided not to
post blogs presenting my ideas. I failed
in my intentions a couple of times, but definitely reduced blogging about my thoughts during this past Lenten season.
I am the sort of person who easily
falls in love with his ideas. That is my
form of vanity and narcissism. As Lent
approached I was writing a blog for almost every idea that popped into my head. That would have been okay for a diary or
personal journal. But, as a Christian,
the moment I began to express my ideas publicly as though they were truths, I
came under the authority of an apostolic injunction which says “Speak the truth
in love.” If I am presenting my ideas as
expressions of truth then this should be submitted to others in love. But if all I was doing was to be expressing
my ideas then perhaps I needed to retreat from doing that enough to examine if
I was expressing truth in love or merely expressing love for my own ideas.
Sometimes we equate sounding a
retreat with surrendering or giving up.
But in reality sounding a retreat can be a valuable strategy both in
military application and within our personal lives. General George Washington understood the
importance of sounding a retreat as a valuable strategy. Washington navigated
the American Army through a difficult scenario.
Especially in the early years of the war, he had a difficult time
keeping the citizen army from going home instead of participating in a lengthy
war for independence. If soldiers felt
there was going to be no major battle, they tended to think they were not
really needed. So Washington had to
engage the British in military action if he hoped to keep his army up to a size
that could possibly win a war for independence.
On the other hand if Washington engaged the British in battle he ran the
risk of having his army defeated by a larger and often better equipped British
Army. Washington solved this dilemma by
selecting his battles carefully. He
attacked when he had an advantage and just as rapidly retreated when his army
began to be threatened by an often larger British force. Washington’s ability to command a retreat was
especially shown in the battle for New York called either the battle of Long
Island or Brooklyn. The British easily
won the battle, but Washington commanded a retreat that kept his army intact,
and both frustrated and astonished the British.
If Washington had been unable to command a successful retreat the
American Revolution would likely have been a footnote in history describing how
the revolutionary forces were defeated by overwhelming forces in the battle for
New York. You may read about the retreat
in the hyperlink beneath the artist’s conception of Washington’s retreat from
Long Island.
Washington’s
Retreat from Long Island
There seems to be parallels between
the times we should sound the retreat in our personal lives with the sort of
situation where generals order a retreat.
A retreat is generally advantageous when we find ourselves in a position
where we are in it “over our heads.” We
realize that we have not the resources, training, or ability to stand in such a
situation. We order a retreat.
Sometimes our reason for retreating can
be out of love for others. Jesus spoke
to his own disciples and told them how there were many things he wanted to
teach to them but they were not ready.
His desire to lead his disciples and by extension his desire to lead us
into all truth is tempered by his desire not to burden us with information
overload. This is something to
especially remember in theological debates that might gain our attention. It gets messy when our abilities to assimilate
truth lead us to being at different places in our understanding of the truths
of the faith. It can be important to
help another understand truth they have not yet learned, but it may also be
important to simply recognize that each of us are learning truth in different
ways and varying speed of learning. We
easily get frustrated by the differences of where differing Christians and
Christian groups are in their process of learning, but sometimes we need simply
to realize that another may not be ready to learn what we have learned, and to
realize humbly that also we may have not learned what another has already
learned. So in our debates we might need
to retreat and ask how well we are dealing with differences.
In the next blog or two, I will
describe some of my conclusions from my time of retreating from blogging. Meanwhile if you have experienced some times
when you discovered retreating valuable, perhaps you might want to share. Likewise if you are the timid sort who has
needed to overcome the temptation to always retreat, share a story about
overcoming that temptation. That might
be a discussion of interest to others. I
would only ask for you to be kind and considerate in your comments.
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