There are days when I need to remind myself to fight.
Jude 1:3//Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. (Even within myself)
1 Timothy 1:18//Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight,
1 Timothy 6:12//Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.
2 Timothy 4:7//I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.
There are days I have to remind myself to fight because there are days I want nothing more than to roll over and die. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that Paul writes three times in two letters to a young Christian to “fight the good fight.”
It’s so daunting because it’s so contrary to what the rest of the world spews at me every second – right now I’m being spewed at through the office-friendly radio station. Our society, our culture, doesn’t want to fight for anything.
Meals should be quick and easy. Housekeeping should be quick and easy. Technology and car repairs should be quick and easy. Eradicating terror from the face of the planet and restoring peace and sanity to a world torn to pieces by hate should be quick and easy.
Fighting is for violent, dangerous, criminal people. Contending is for stubborn, close-minded, self-righteous jerks. Taking a stand for something is really cool if it’s against the U.S. government, but really fanatical if it’s against anything else.
Shut up. Keep your head down. Go with the grain. You can have an opinion once every two years in a polling booth, but the rest of the time just listen. Don’t speak. Just listen. Listen and watch and internalize and become and you won’t even want to fight anymore.
And when the enemy of your soul starts to whisper in your ear, you’ll be so accustomed to listening and becoming that you won’t feel like fighting that either. Passivity is so much easier. It’s easier to believe that there is no God, or if there is He doesn’t like you anyway. It’s easier to believe that you’ll never answer for your life, that the love you’re really looking for didn’t actually sacrifice Himself for you, and that you don’t have a purpose. It’s easier to question and doubt than to love and believe, so just listen to the lies and let your spirit glaze over.
Matthew 11:12//The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force.
