on violence

A lady security guard shot someone who had come into a church and started shooting people because he didn't like Christians. Her account was heroic, and has been for me conciliatory in the dilemma of violence and faith. As a practitioner, self-proclaimed, of the martial arts, I consider at least as frequently as I work out on my punching bag what a rare occasion it would be that I should be justified, much less that I would bring glory to God, in fighting. I believe a person has not only a right but an obligation to defend his family, others who are defenseless, even himself against random violence. However, I've often wondered if it would be a true testimony to Jesus Christ to defend oneself with violence when one has been targeted specifically for faith in Christ. I feel that the security guard in the recent incident resolved this matter well, with objectivity, and not only without compromising her faith but even perhaps glorifying God in cutting short mass murder and in recognizing God's calling in her life. She did mention, after all, seeking God's purpose in her life in a three day fast just preceding the incident. The only question that remains for me is the amount of satisfaction I'm allowed in kungfuing somebody. I've sometimes had the impression that Christians should be reluctant warriors at best. Then I read in the psalms, "The righteous will be glad when they are avenged, when they bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked. Then men will say, 'Surely the righteous still are rewarded; surely there is a God who judges the earth'".
"What I cannot understand," wrote C.S. Lewis, "is this sort of semi-pacifism you get nowadays which gives people the idea that though you have to fight, you ought to do it with a long face as though you were ashamed of it. It is that feeling that robs lots of magnificent young Christians in the services of something they have a right to, something which is the natural accompaniment of courage- a kind of gaiety and wholeheartedness" (Mere Christianity ch 7).