noun

1. One who enthusiastically engages in an activity or hobby on the weekends outside of regular employment.
2. A part-time soldier, or reservist.
3. A person who indulges in a sport or pastime on an infrequent basis, usually on weekends when work commitments are not present.

I had the good fortune to be raised in a town that housed a major military base.  Some of the top people in the military spent 3 years in my town.  Some went on to the pentagon.  Some were veterans of the first gulf war.  Some liked the town so much that when they finished their term with the military, they stayed and settled down there.  Many of them subsequently enlisted in the guard.  Made perfect sense.  They’d already had basic training and in some cases real combat time.

We called them “weekend warriors”.

Young people in my town also enlisted in the reserves in order to get an education paid for.  Not a bad deal.  Until a war breaks out.  It was interesting to see their faces when the reality hit that the very entity paying for their education was actually demanding that they use the training received one weekend a month and two weeks a year to go to a war zone and engage.

A spot on picture of the North American church today.  Weekend warriors.  Shocked that God may actually ask them to “engage”.  Perhaps the word “reservists” is even more accurate?  Individuals that have minimal training in spiritual combat.  Individuals that God is “reserving”, to be “called up” at the right time for the right mission.  Fascinating, that as our Father pulls out the war weary regular troops and sends them Home for 7 years of R and R, He engages the reservist for His final ultra-dramatic mission.  Fortunately for the reservists, our Father leaves the top 10% of the regulars on scene to train and lead the new army of God.  Quite a task for the “first fruits” to pull the reservist into line, into a fighting organization.  To transform them from weekend warriors to full time soldiers.  They’ll have 3.5 years of basic training to prepare for the inevitable war.

When the time comes, we know that the reservist will perform brilliantly, valiantly, selflessly.  Not unlike our Father’s warriors in Poland are performing today.  They will be unified as never before.  They will have real power never seen before.  The whole world will take note of them.  They will represent the living God.  All Hell will come against them.

Hell will lose.

But for now, they are happy go lucky weekend warriors, oblivious to the war brewing all around them.

they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage …

they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building …

Except that these are not destroyed.  They are placed into action.

It’s apparent to me that God knows them intimately.  Loves them perfectly.  And He is content to let them overlook the obvious surrounding them so that at the right time, in His time, they will awake.

If God is willing to leave them be for now, so should I.

I must learn patience.