Warrior Shepherds
The Stories That Remind Us What Matters Most
The sun sinks in the west, daylight fading into twilight. The breeze carries the faint scent of smoke and cooking meat. The shepherd picks up his harp, strums the strings and tests his voice. A good day by all accounts. He reaches for his supper and hears the disturbance in the flock. Suddenly, resting sheep scatter in noise and fright, and a lone lamb bleats painfully.
The shepherd does not hesitate. Taking his sling in hand and loading it with a stone, he sprints toward the retreating shadow of the thieving predator. Within striking distance the shepherd lets his stone fly. The lamb drops to the earth and the wounded lion turns with a roar. The shepherd stands his ground, despite the very real danger to himself. He grips his knife, as the big cat advances. With a ferocious roar of his own the shepherd reaches for the lion’s beard. With a violence born of cold fury, the shepherd buries his knife deep, ending the threat.
He steps back and with shaking hands sheaths his knife. He wipes the blood from his hands, walking to the lamb. With gentleness that belies the violence in which he just participated, the shepherd picks her up, speaking in soothing tones and tending to her injuries.
Such is the scene painted of 1 Samuel 17:35.
A man who did not go seeking battle, yet when the fight came to his doorstep he proved himself more than capable of ending the threat.
What makes a good man?
Using scripture one can determine with certainty that a good man is not:
brave
competent
masculine
wealthy
merely moral
While every good man will possess these traits, they do not make him good.
Jesus was very clear in Mark 10:18 There is none good but one, that is, God.
Therefore, any goodness a man displays will first originate from God.
According to scripture a good man is a wise man, one who fears God, rejects evil, calls wickedness what it is. He is:
A man who aligns his thinking with God’s thinking. Psalm 1
Faithful. Noah, Boaz, Joseph, Daniel
a sacrificial giver, of his time, his wealth, his care. He is a shepherd of those under his influence. John 10:11
Bears in his actions the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23. Goodness appears right beside gentleness and temperance.
A good steward. He watches, he guards, he feeds, he sacrifices, he stays.
He repents: And this is perhaps the most important one on the list. A good man is not a perfect man, rather he is a man humble enough to admit when he is wrong and offers vulnerable recompense.
In all, a good man is one who faces God and orders his life accordingly.
The Lions of Mercer
Now for the book review. White Harvest Media is featuring a book this month that speaks to men choosing to do right, and staying faithful in it despite the danger and cost.
John Lovell and Harrison Kone teamed up to write The Lions of Mercer. A military thriller exploring the truth of a dark world, where politics and optics are more important than protecting the innocent. When the CIA tells him to abandon the daughter of his Afghani interpreter, Micah Mercer decides Rangers do not leave children behind.
What The Lions of Mercer does particularly well.
Realism.
Micah is not a saint, not even close. No spoilers, but suffice it to say, John Lovell has an author letter at the beginning of his book explaining why he published this book himself and why it is not marketed as Christian fiction.
There is military culture, brotherhood, violence and human brokenness in stark detail.
Sacrifice
The decisions that Mercer and his team makes ultimately cost them good standing with Federal agencies. A forced resignation, the real danger of losing precious NGO status, even death. They cannot save everyone, despite trying.
Endurance
Despite the grief, Mercer and his men do not quit until the job is done.
Morally grey characters
Perhaps the most interesting character in the whole story is not Mercer. It is the Australian mercenary. A man obviously on the wrong side of the fight, yet compelling precisely because of that. There again no spoilers, but the authors did a fantastic job of capturing the outlook of a man who would be capable of great good if his moral compass were not so skewed.
My quibbles
I gave The Lions of Mercer four stars.
There were times in the narrative I felt that military culture was over explained, or gear was listed more like an advertisement rather than naturally flowing from the story. I felt that Micah’s redemption arc was a bit rushed, especially where his relationship with his wife was concerned. Lastly, I found the leniency of the final oversight decision to be more “happy ending” than perhaps would be realistic.
That being said. I genuinely enjoyed the book, because it was a good story, with the highest of stakes and it kept me keyed in until the last page.
Why White Harvest chose to feature this one
Men need good fiction, they especially need good fiction in an arena where there is a gap.
Christian fiction should ultimately serve the purpose of drawing readers back to the truth of the Creator and the principles of his Word. This story, told from a Christian perspective, put me in mind of King David. He was far from perfect, he sinned grievously, after he allowed the world to soften him. Yet God described him as a man after His own heart.
As a warrior, David committed extreme acts of violence. As a man he controlled his capability with extraordinary acts of restraint. He suffered immensely with intense emotion, fury, sorrow, love, and lust. Yet so many psalms begin in darkness and end with God’s light.
Micah Mercer is not King David, but he is a man seeking to do righteousness with the portion he has been given. This is why I chose the book. Men need heroes still, fictional though they may be. Lovell and Kone gave us one.
June’s Theme
Stories matter because they give us examples to remember. This month, both of the projects I am launching wrestle with that question in different ways.
NONE
My father introduced me to spaghetti westerns when I was young. I was named for the Jessica in The Man From Snowy River, with Kirk Douglas. I read my first Louis L'Amour when I was eight. The grit of cowboy culture was prevalent in our home. When I was fourteen I watched the 1960 version of The Magnificent Seven. Over the next two years I would watch that movie dozens of times. The scene from that movie that stuck with me the most was the quote delivered by Steve McQueen’s character Vin. He is responding to Chico, the youngest of the gunslingers, who says, “Your gun has gotten you everything you have. Isn’t that true?”
Vin replies. “Yeah, sure everything. After a while you can call bartenders and farrow dealers by their first name. Maybe two hundred of ‘em. Rented rooms you live in, maybe five hundred. Meals you eat in hash houses a thousand.”
Then the iconic line.
“Home, none, wife, none, kid… none. Prospects zero.”
That hesitation gets me every time, because it is the hesitation of regret.
So in my early adulthood I decided to give Vin a story. Dedicated to the man who shouldered the burden of responsibility to stay and raise my sisters and me. The first chapter in that book drops Friday.
Tristan’s Reckoning
The second launch is the next book in Songs of Redemption. Crown Prince Tristan Aurelio Cassian Valmor, born to be the next king of Gershan, grows from boyhood into a man.
His crown demands everything. Even what should never be sacrificed.
He was raised to become king.
Not to love.
Tristan has spent his life mastering control—of his kingdom, his future, and himself. But when he binds himself in secret to a foreign maid, he sets in motion a chain of events that threatens everything he was born to protect.
Exiled through betrayal and hunted at sea, Tristan is stripped of title, power, and position—forced to survive as nothing more than a captain under another man’s command. And when the truth of the woman he loves is finally revealed, it is far worse than he imagined.
Because Alana is not who he thought she was.
And the enemies circling his crown have been waiting for this weakness.
When war comes and his kingdom begins to fracture, Tristan fights his way back to reclaim what is his. But victory comes at a cost he cannot ignore.
His crown—or his family.
And this time, he may not be able to keep both.
Tristan’s Reckoning is a story of power, betrayal, and the cost of choosing what truly matters - When who you were trained to be collides with who you were created to be.
Men in story
Every character featured this month wrestles with the same truth from different perspectives. Who are you when God strips everything, when life is hard, when danger comes?
As I write this month, I will be exploring the stories of the good men in my life who have influenced me. Men who loved, men who gave, men who protected.
I am very excited to share their journeys with you, and maybe you’ll find a story worth sharing with a good man in your life.
Happy June everyone.
— Jess