Rudolph “Rudy” Davis, Sr.
9.16.1927 - 11.26.2020
“Are you mad? Are you mad?”, Mr. Davis asked as his oversized hands swallowed the baton suspended in midair. His presence made the baton look like a toothpick each time he picked it up and waved it in the air leading his class of fifth grade band students in routine sheet music. I’m not sure what set me off that day, but I was not happy, and I made sure Mr. Davis knew how I felt. In fact, now that I think about it, he was mad at the entire band because he was making us play a particular song over and over. Our punishment was to blow through our instruments as hard as we could exhausting our lips and facial muscles which was eventually very painful because we had not yet strengthened our embouchure.
He stood there stoic, with his hands in the air waiting for each of us to focus our eyes on his command because when he hit the downbeat we were to start playing in unison and continue as he led us to a progressively faster tempo each time he started the song over. Mr. Rudolph Davis was our Band Director, 6’3” in stature, receding hair line, gentle in nature and had huge hands that would wrap around and practically swallow any instrument he touched. As a fifth grader I was so impressed and in awe with how he could play any instrument he touched. I just loved being in his class.
However, on that day he said something that made such an impact to me as a ten-year-old little girl, that forty-five years later I can still see his face glaring at me. I sat there, second chair flutist with my instrument pressed to my lips ready to play.
“Are you mad? Are you mad?”, he asked me as his eyes pierced mine. “Yes, I’m mad” I shouted and with the same conviction I served hIm, he delivered back. “Good”, he said without missing a beat, “you play better when you’re mad!”
“What!?” What do you mean, “I play better when I’m mad?”, I thought to myself. It was as though he knocked the chair out from under me that I was metaphorically standing on in my heart. How dare he turn my own rebellion against me and force me to use it for my good. Challenge me to channel the anger I had toward him to serve the purpose that he ultimately wanted, which for that day was to simply corral his fifth-grade band class to focus, quit talking and learn to play our instruments. As short lived as that thirty-second interaction was, the lesson he gave me still sticks with me today.
As I sit and watch the absolute mess that the Senior Leadership in this country have purposely created, I can still hear Mr. Davis’ voice ringing in my ears. “Are you mad?” “Are you mad?” “Good, because you play better when you’re mad.” It’s as though the memory of that moment is still taunting me today, telling me to get up and do something. Mr. Davis wasn’t saying that being mad was my excuse and fuel to become reckless in our manner toward something. He was teaching us to channel that anger into passion that was controlled and purposeful.
In the book of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon brought the Israelites out of their land of Jerusalem and into captivity. Daniel and his friends, having an uncompromising love for the Lord though forced into slavery, refused to worship the gods of the land. As a result of his convictions, he was thrown into the lion’s den and his friends thrown into the fire left to die. God honored their faith, rescued them from death and promoted them within the Babylonian system to represent Him in an influential way throughout the kingdom. In his first year of captivity, Daniel and his friends captured the attention and respect of the King when he refused to eat of the king’s delicacies but fasted on the foods that were consistent to his culture and not “defile himself” by eating of the king’s rich foods. In the second year of captivity, Daniel trusted God in natural circumstances when he was forced to interpret the king’s dream with zero knowledge of the dream itself. After the Lord faithfully gave Daniel wisdom on how to respond, the King granted Daniel and his friends anything they desired within the land. Daniel chose to sit at the gate.
𝘼𝙡𝙨𝙤 𝘿𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙚𝙡 𝙥𝙚𝙩𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙚𝙩 𝙎𝙝𝙖𝙙𝙧𝙖𝙘𝙝, 𝙈𝙚𝙨𝙝𝙖𝙘𝙝, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝘼𝙗𝙚𝙙-𝙉𝙚𝙜𝙤 𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙛𝙛𝙖𝙞𝙧𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙫𝙞𝙣𝙘𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝘽𝙖𝙗𝙮𝙡𝙤𝙣; 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝘿𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙚𝙡 𝙨𝙖𝙩 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙜𝙖𝙩𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜.
𝘿𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙚𝙡 2:29
Daniel always had his eyes on God and never allowed the favor he received in his slavery to entice him to forget he himself, was in chains to an evil government. He sat at the gate, why? Gatekeepers played a prominent role in the city because they were the ones who saw firsthand what was being allowed into their community. Turning his back on this honor meant evil would continually infiltrate the land.
𝐓𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐧 𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐲𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐈 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐲 𝐭𝐡𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞𝐧, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐢𝐬 𝐮𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐚 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐞; 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐦𝐢𝐞𝐬; 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐡 𝐛𝐞 𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐝; 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐛𝐞𝐲𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐲 𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐜𝐞.
𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐬 𝟐𝟐:𝟏𝟕-𝟏𝟖
When it came time for the Israelites to possess the land that was promised to them by God, they first had to dispossess the land from the enemy. They had to take it back and before they could possess it, they had to contend (fight) for the land. It was the same at the city gates, elders stood there, leaders stood there, merchants worked there, it was a gate of influence. The promise to Abraham at the beginning of time was that his seed, his descendants, (who are you and me), would possess that gate. God even went on to say that when we take our rightful place at the gate, others would be blessed. The blessing and protection of possessing the gates would extend farther than our own family and nations would be blessed because of our obedience to possess the gate.
What are the gates of influence? If you haven’t heard Lance Wallnau teach about the “Seven Mountains of Influence”, I highly suggest that you follow him. What are the Seven Mountains of Influence? They are a sphere of influence over every area of our life, the Mountain of Religion, Media, Government, Education, Family, Arts & Entertainment and Economy. As Believers we have “dispossessed the gate” and have been shaped by a culture foreign to our beliefs and values. We have been convinced that possessing places of influence, these mountains, these gates, are for the world and not the church. As a result, we have allowed the enemy to influence our culture in a way that is destructive to our soul, spirit and physical wellbeing.
What does that look like in all practicality? I am so thankful for the brave men and women who have served in our military and fought on foreign soil, so our homeland is protected from the evil influence we see in other countries. The gatekeepers in a sense of the word have been our military, protecting us with an unwritten moral code that is assumed to be honored by everyone who calls themselves an American, Senior Leadership as well. However, the evil that we guarded against from foreign soil has rapidly made it to American soil. Both in the physical and spiritual we are being forced to choose sides on whom we will serve and whom we will honor.
Just as Mr. Davis asked me that day forty-five years ago, “Are you mad? Are you mad?” and as Daniel, took his position at the gate to protect his community from further destruction and evil, we too need to ask ourselves that question and make a decision if we are finally going to take a position. What gate you guarding and defending?
and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
Matthew 16:18