Moses fought Pharaoh.
Noah fought the entire world, who ALL thought he was a few peanuts short of a Snickers bar.
David fought many, including his mentor and his own children.
Job fought sickness, tragic loss, his “friends” and even his own wife.
Jesus fought the religious establishment, and then Paul picked up the mantle and kept fighting.
Right before he died, the Apostle Paul said, “I have fought long and hard for my Lord, and through it all I have kept true to him. And now the time has come for me to stop fighting and rest. (2 Timothy 4:7)”
His post-salvation life was spent in light, laughter and liberation, to be certain, but his battles were fought in an arena of darkness.
So who are you fighting?
It’s a worthy question, I think.
I used to fight those who were trying to love me. I fought my past, I fought conformity, I fought depression, I fought anger, I fought self-loathing, and on and on the list goes.
Some of these foes have been vanquished while others remain on the battlefield, attacking me every day. Thus, the battle rages on!
All of us are fighting someone, or something. Question is, who are YOU fighting?
Some enemies are worth fighting:
- Lucifer/The Devil/Satan/The Big Red Nasty Booboo Bringer
- Depression
- Bitterness
- Chronic pain
- Hatred (toward self and/or others)
- Fear
- Anxiety
- Dread
- Rage
- Greed
- Cruelty
- Ad nauseum
But some of us have made adversaries out of emotions or people meant to bring us joy and happiness.
You see, the Devil will try and trick us into fighting that very thing which could bring us pure contentment.
Some fight against “religion” or “Jesus” or whatever name you want to place on your faith.
Others fight against family who are only trying to help them. The very PEOPLE who could bring them true bliss are the very ones they continue to rebel against, for a variety of reasons.
I tried to fight love with hate for a long time, but thankfully, the power of laughter outweighs hostility, and the light won out.
Let me share a brief story with you about my relationship with my lovely wife, Laura.
You don’t reach 30 years of marriage without learning a thing or two about relationships. For the first few years we were together, Laura could tell I was holding back, emotionally. I was terrified to give her my all, for fear of losing everything.
So one day she asked me why I held back, and I told her.
“If I give you every nook and cranny of my soul; every shadow and every weakness, everything, all my heart, I’m afraid that if I lose you, it will literally crush me. I won’t be able to live.”
There was silence between us for a minute, and then she said, “But what kind of way is that to live, babe? Wouldn’t you rather give it your all, and be able to say you LOVED and LIVED, instead of holding back?”
Or, as Alfred Lord Tennyson so famously stated, “‘Tis better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.”
Hard to argue with that.
So I keep fighting, every minute of every day. Most days I do pretty well, other days I don’t, but I never stop.
Depression, chronic pain and anxiety are worth fighting.
Happiness, love and health are NOT.
This being the case, who are you fighting?
Broken People 