Holding the High Ground

One of the first things anyone in the military learns is that the person holding the high ground has an advantage over those below them. It's easier to hit a target on lower ground, it's harder for those below to hit those above, and the people on the high ground have a better assessment of where their enemies are. It's hard to move unseen when your every movement is visible from above.

This isn't new. Castles were usually built on high ground overlooking the area below. Even Romans and Greeks preferred to camp on the highest ground they could. One of Gen. George Custer's most obvious failures is that he camped his men in the valley below a dozen round hills in South Dakota. His unit was totally wiped out.

High ground can be taken, but it's costly. One of the major reasons Bastogne was able to hold out was that it was slightly higher than the areas around it. The United States usually constructed its firebases in Vietnam on the high ground, and it cost the Vietcong tremendously to attack against these fortified sites.

Just as in warfare, the high ground is important elsewhere in life. Honest people, people who choose the "high ground" of integrity, are more trusted and respected than their opposites. We hold members of the clergy in high esteem because they supposedly live on the "high ground" of Godly values. We endow members of government respect because we believe they're on the "high ground" of governmental integrity.

One of the main problems of living on "high ground" is that it also leaves one quite visible, and open to attack from all sides. Yet high ground, either physical or moral, also provides one a stronger defense, and better chance of survival against all enemies, than any other, all things being relatively equal.

In today's society, everyone on "high ground" is under constant attack. There are those that hate moral values, who hate integrity and truth, who hate "inequality" of any type or for any reason. These people constantly try to destroy anyone whose values, whose reasons, whose beliefs differ from theirs - to destroy the "high ground" or to elevate their groups to equality with those who live on percieved high ground.

The flood of truth is destroying their arguments, bringing down their houses of corruption, and washing away their artificial elevations. The greatest attack is aimed at those who adhere to religious beliefs that demand they separate themselves from the behavior their religion says is sin. Sin infers judgment. Sin infers differences. Sin infers failure. For these reasons, those who sin fight to destroy the concept of sin. Yet there is the concept of final judgment that cannot be destroyed without destroying the concept of God Himself.

Whatever small victories sinners may have on this earth, they cannot win against God. Nor can they destroy the reward the Godly shall inherit. God is the ultimate "High Ground", and cannot be defeated.