Top Gun: Make Us Proud
I admit it... I've watched Top Gun:Maverick probably 5 or 6 times. It's got great themes of
forgiveness, friendship, perseverance, and risk-taking. Call me hokey if you will, but I love it!
It's kinda surprising, really, because I wasn't that big a fan of the original Top Gun. I mean,
yeah... I saw it at the theater a hundred years ago, and caught scenes all gazillion times it's
played on streaming television. The music was memorable-right into the danger zone with
Kenny Loggins-and I mostly remember it as the movie that launched Tom Cruise into stardom
along with co-stars Meg Ryan and Anthony Edwards. I remember figuring out that Anthony
Edwards was the straight-up good guy on the medical procedural tv show ER. Eclipsed by
George Clooney, maybe, but I didn't put him together with the guy on Top Gun. So for all its
star power, I wasn't that into it.
The sequel, though, captured my attention in a way the original didn't. Maybe it's because the
hero is closer to my age. Or the fact that, good as he is, Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell is
kinda stuck and kinda a screw up. His fellow Top Gun classmate, Iceman, played by Val
Kilmer in both movies, has moved on up to the position of Admiral, while Maverick is stuck at
Captain. We learn early on in the film that he still pushes the envelope, and as a result gets cast
into a position of teacher for a group of confident, younger Top Guns who must learn to Jael
had no weapons of warfare, but she did have the tools of her trade: a tent peg and a hammer. Little
did she know until now that all those years of driving tent pegs would prepare her for this moment.
She crept beside Sisera and with one powerful blow, penetrated his skull and drove the peg through it,
and into the ground.
Later, Barak arrives, pursuing Sisera, and likely accompanied by many of his army. Jael likewise went
out to greet Barak and to invite him into her tent. There she presented to Barak the corpse of Israel's
most powerful enemy, still stuck to the ground by Jael's tent peg. No, the honor of destroying public
enemy number one was not Barak's, but Jael's. And this, just as Deborah had prophesied.
complete a deadly mission.
Pete "Maverick" Mitchell feels ill equipped for this task. But it's this or the end of his career.
So, in the unlikely event you haven't seen the film-maybe you were on safari or stationed in
Antarctica, or you took a sabbatical to live among the natives of Papua New Guinea- I won't
give away the ending or spoil the drama that ensues. But there is a moment in the film that took
my breath. It was such an affirmation of the character's gift, and a boost of confidence before
the climactic fight and flight scenes that follow.
One of Maverick's mentors, Rear Admiral Solomon "Warlock" Bates, speaks to him before he
takes off in his fighter jet for a mission that will likely be his last. "Maverick," Warlock says,
"You're where you belong. Make us proud."
I think the reason we love underdog stories-like an aging, non-promotable, captain leading a
suicide mission and saving the day (that's not too much of a spoiler, is it?)-is that WE often
feel like underdogs. In a fallen, upside-down world, where evil is celebrated and virtue is
mocked, where "coming out" as a follower of Jesus practically guarantees you'll be passed
over, assumed ignorant at best and hateful at worst, our question becomes "What can one
person do? How does what I do make any difference at all?"
One of the things I love about scripture is that God delights in using unexpected people to
impact His Kingdom. In fact, His story of redemption hinges on the unexpected entry of the
promised Messiah in a humble stable, the life of a carpenter/itinerant preacher hated by the
religious leaders, and death on a cross, considered cursed and pitiable. Jesus's birth, life, and
death is the picture of God doing what He does best: creating something out of nothing.
Bringing the universe into existence by His word, taking 95 cents worth of chemistry elements
to create life, and from the nothingness of a borrowed tomb defeating death forevermore!
We think of the people from Scripture as heroes of faith, many of whom are mentioned in
Hebrews 11, in the Hall of Faith chapter, but just as often they are ordinary people just doing
their bit. "You're where you belong. Make us proud."
Hebrews 11:32 says, "How much more do I need to say? It would take too long to recount the
stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets."
Sounds impressive, doesn't it? But like many of the heroes of faith, Barak had a little help in
Judges 4. Check it out...
After Ehud's death, the Israelites again did evil in the LORD's sight. 2 So the LORD turned them
over to King Jabin of Hazor, a Canaanite king. The commander of his army was Sisera, who
lived in Harosheth-haggoyim. 3 Sisera, who had 900 iron chariots, ruthlessly oppressed the
Israelites for twenty years. Then the people of Israel cried out to the LORD for help.
4 Deborah, the wife of Lappidoth, was a prophet who was judging Israel at that time. 5 She
would sit under the Palm of Deborah, between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of
Ephraim, and the Israelites would go to her for judgment. 6 One day she sent for Barak son of
Abinoam, who lived in Kedesh in the land of Naphtali. She said to him, "This is what the LORD,
the God of Israel, commands you: Call out 10,000 warriors from the tribes of Naphtali and
Zebulun at Mount Tabor. 7 And I will call out Sisera, commander of Jabin's army, along with
his chariots and warriors, to the Kishon River. There I will give you victory over him."
8 Barak told her, "I will go, but only if you go with me."
9 "Very well," she replied, "I will go with you. But you will receive no honor in this venture, for
the LORD's victory over Sisera will be at the hands of a woman." So Deborah went with Barak
to Kedesh. 10 At Kedesh, Barak called together the tribes of Zebulun and Naphtali, and 10,000
warriors went up with him. Deborah also went with him.
11 Now Heber the Kenite, a descendant of Moses' brother-in-law[a] Hobab, had moved away
from the other members of his tribe and pitched his tent by the oak of Zaanannim near Kedesh.
12 When Sisera was told that Barak son of Abinoam had gone up to Mount Tabor, 13 he called
for all 900 of his iron chariots and all of his warriors, and they marched from Harosheth-
haggoyim to the Kishon River.
14 Then Deborah said to Barak, "Get ready! This is the day the LORD will give you victory over
Sisera, for the LORD is marching ahead of you." So Barak led his 10,000 warriors down the
slopes of Mount Tabor into battle. 15 When Barak attacked, the LORD threw Sisera and all his
chariots and warriors into a panic. Sisera leaped down from his chariot and escaped on
foot. 16 Then Barak chased the chariots and the enemy army all the way to Harosheth-haggoyim,
killing all of Sisera's warriors. Not a single one was left alive. (Judges 4:1-16 NLT)
So Barak is the man of the hour, except he's not quite ready to face the most powerful army of
the world with its 900 iron chariots and warriors, so he asks the prophet and judge, Deborah, to
tag along. I envision her in armour like Eowyn with the Riders of Rohan in Lord of the Rings, if
I can mix my movie metaphors. Deborah agrees, but clarifies: "This is not about you, Barak.
Watch God use someone unexpected: a woman." The Canaanite army is defeated, and Sisera is
on the run. Picking up at verse 17 of Chapter 4....
17 Meanwhile, Sisera ran to the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, because Heber's
family was on friendly terms with King Jabin of Hazor. 18 Jael went out to meet Sisera and said
to him, "Come into my tent, sir. Come in. Don't be afraid." So he went into her tent, and she
covered him with a blanket.
19 "Please give me some water," he said. "I'm thirsty." So she gave him some milk from a
leather bag and covered him again.
20 "Stand at the door of the tent," he told her. "If anybody comes and asks you if there is anyone
here, say no."
21 But when Sisera fell asleep from exhaustion, Jael quietly crept up to him with a hammer and
tent peg in her hand. Then she drove the tent peg through his temple and into the ground, and so
he died.
22 When Barak came looking for Sisera, Jael went out to meet him. She said, "Come, and I will
show you the man you are looking for." So he followed her into the tent and found Sisera lying
there dead, with the tent peg through his temple.
23 So on that day Israel saw God defeat Jabin, the Canaanite king. 24 And from that time on Israel
became stronger and stronger against King Jabin until they finally destroyed him. (Judges 4:17-
23 NLT)
We get more of a glimpse at the character of Sisera... He runs away from the battle, away from
his army, having trusted in his chariots, now destroyed. He asks for entry to a woman's tent,
probably assuming it would be the last place his pursuers would look for him. He's greeted by
Jael, a simple Bedouin woman whose husband had entered into a peace with Israel's enemy.
Sisera feels no threat, and he falls asleep.
Sisera had no idea that years of driving tent pegs, a woman's job, would prepare this unlikely
hero for the task she would perform. With a powerful blow of her hammer, she destroyed the
general who had harassed Israel for twenty years. Just as Deborah prophesied, the LORD's
victory over Sisera was at the hands of a woman, and not Deborah the prophet and judge, but
Jael, a simple Bedouin woman whose simple life prepared her for a great moment in time.
Robert L. Deffinbaugh, in "Strong Women, Week-kneed (Whimpy) Men" (link in the show
notes) said this: "All her life this woman had been doing her simple, mundane tasks, perhaps
feeling very insignificant in the scheme of life. And yet God had been preparing her, just as He
had used Israel's years of servitude to prepare them for the rigors of desert life. She had become
very skilled with a tent peg and a hammer, but she did not know what difference this could
make. If the Book of Judges teaches us anything, it is that our great God uses unlikely
instruments to accomplish His purposes. He lifts up those who are lowly (like Jael), and he
humbles those who are great (like Sisera)."
All too often, we think and speak of ourselves as "just..." Just a homemaker, just a business
owner, just a mom, just...fill in the blank. Or we downplay our gifts and talents, "I'm not quite
as good as I'd like to be," or "So-in-so is better..." Ephesians 6:10 says, "Be strong in the Lord,
and in His mighty power."
Can you imagine His hands wrapped around Jael's, bringing the hammer home, crushing the
enemy, and she never wavering or questioning, "Am I enough? Is my hammer the right one?
What if I fail?" Deborah sings a song of the battle in Judges 5... "Most blessed of women be
Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, most blessed of tent-dwelling women." Israel's Top Gun was
a little Bedouin woman who knew how to set up and take down a tent. Jael, you are where you
belong! Make us proud! The result of her faithfulness? Judges 5:31 says, "Then the land had
peace forty years."
We look for the "big things"-worldwide impact, large-scale changes, unprecedented
influence-but God looks for steadfastness. Faithfulness. Doing the little things over and over
and doing them well.
In Top Gun: Maverick, it isn't the ones who advanced in rank, who did everything just right,
who save the day. It's the screw-up, the one who is his own worst enemy, the one who does one
thing, and does it well, with all his heart thrown over the line in spite of himself. You might say,
he is one of A Few Good Men. (that was a groan-worthy Tom Cruise movie reference right
there!)
Is your heart thrown over the line? Are you willing to surrender the mundane to the hand of
God so that you can be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power? Don't give up being
faithful to the little things, the obedience that God is using to prepare you for THAT day when
the world will change because of YOU.
"You're where you belong. Make us proud."
Father,
I often feel like I'm having NO impact on the world around me. Who would even listen to a
middle-aged, home-grown, Kentucky woman, and what power could I possibly wield that
would produce something to make You proud? Thank you for reminding me that You
determine impact; You decide when to put my identity and gifts and talents into play. You are
the mighty power surrounding my hands, giving me the strength to change my world!
Give me courage to not gift up. Remind me that I am where I belong, and in due time, You will
lift me up. Thank you for the stories of faith from Your word. Thank you that impact is eternal;
while I may not see what You've done through me this side of Heaven, I can be sure that You
have not wasted a single moment of my surrender to you.
My prayer is that I make You proud!
In Jesus' name, Amen.
