A Thought To Ponder The Zulu Warrior and the Brim Ironer Most of us today have heard about Shaka, King of the Zulus, a tribe in the southern part of Africa. Shaka was a brutal ruler, and a military genius of his day, and one aspect of how he trained his warriors is fascinating. Believing that sandals prevented warriors from moving as quickly as needed in battle, he forbade the wearing of them; requiring his warriors to always go barefoot. To build up their feet and be able to run over rocks, thorns, etc without any pain, he had them run barefoot 50 miles every day, and perform their ceremonial war dances over beds of thorns and hot coals. No matter what the terrain, they marched, ran, and fought with feet so calloused they felt nothing. While we know about the Zulus, almost no one knows about brim ironers. In fact, I probably would have never known anything about brim ironers if I had not had one for a neighbor. For a year after graduating from college, we lived in a rural area, and down the road lived a couple with whom we worshipped in the small congregation nearby. Charles worked for a manufacturer of men’ hats and one of the first things I noticed about him was that his right hand was larger than the left and heavily calloused. We became close friends, and one evening when he and his wife were visiting, I asked about his job, and his enjoyment of it. It was then we were told about his specific task, and why his hand was so calloused. Charles was hired shortly after graduating from high school and the position available was as a hat brim ironer. After a hat is cut into size, it has to be formed into the style. The brims were formed by hand, and then ironed to retain the shape. The irons were wrought iron, and kept at a high temperature to be able to press the material into and keep the desired shape. The process may be automated now, but then it was manual, and done without any gloves or protection for the hand. At first, Charles said that he could only hold the iron for a very short time, but as the days went by, calluses formed and the burning pain of the flesh eventually vanished. If you are wondering what the feet of a Zulu warrior and Charles’ hand have to do with us, it is because today we have a society which promotes yielding to temptation, and where “acceptors” of Jesus as Christ can yield without any pain of conscience. A society where calloused consciences consider perversion entertaining, sin is old fashioned, repentance is irrelevant, and hell is a joke. A society where man is god; God is inferior, Jesus is accepted but shunned, and the Spirit is a myth. Our calloused hands and feet holding Satan’ hand; walking down paths of hot coals never sensing the flames of eternity. Even when warned so long ago by Paul in 1st Timothy 4:1-3:, we still believe his lies and shut out revelations that reveal them. “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry, and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who know the truth.” What we need today is to allow the scriptures to soften and remove sin’s callous on our conscience, open our eyes to truth, and strengthen our spirits to walk in the straight and narrow way. Ponder this: “Heaven’s abode does not depend on our knowing Jesus, but on if he knows us” Matthew 7: 21-23. Jack’s Thoughts©
Posted on: Fri, 09 Aug 2013 04:05:32 +0000
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