Have you ever been in a fight? It is likely that some of you reading this have thrown down at some point in your life. I had a few close calls in my growing up, but would say that I have never officially been in a physical altercation with another person. Some pushes and shoves here and there, but nothing more than that.
If you’re like me and haven’t ever been part of an outbreak of fisticuffs, chances are still good that you have at least fought something before. You may have fought against the rules of your parents as a stubborn child or rebellious teen. Perhaps you regularly fight against the temptation to indulge in something that may feel good for a moment but will ultimately do much more harm than good. You might fight against feelings of despair or anxiety, or fight to make it to work on time when everything that could have gone wrong went wrong. You fight to keep your most important relationships strong, or fight for the protection of your kids or friends or for people who are unable to protect themselves in the way they need.
Perhaps this most recent Christmas season you had to fight to actually see Christmas for what it truly is. You had to fight through the milieu of the Christmas propaganda machine that can turn us into monsters of jingle bell chaos who know only shopping and planning and traveling and consuming to try and remember the silent night in the manger in Bethlehem. You had to fight for peace.
The great St. Augustine wrote, “We go to war that we may have peace.” Seems like a paradox, and it is, but it’s also true. To have peace, we must fight. To experience rest, we must work. And yet Christians are also a people of surrender, which is the beautiful dance that the gospel of the Kingdom of God presents to us – we fight best when we surrender; we work hardest when we let go.
My wife and I recently bought a home, and we have spent many hours working on it doing all the new homeowner tasks and remodeling it to make it our own. It has been more of a weight on me than I expected it to be, and it has me entering this Christmas season wearier than I thought I would. I blame the amount of work I’ve been doing, but the truth is that this weariness is not a result of my physical labor but rather a symptom of my spiritual condition. I’ve set in my heart the goal to “do the work” this year – physical, mental, emotional – and I have. But instead of coming out the other side with a renewed sense of kingdom purpose and vision for my life, I’m simply jaded and, in some ways, unrecognizable to myself.
Why? Because this fight has been about me. I’ve not gone to war for peace, I’ve gone to war for success, for accomplishment, to prove something to myself. This is a fool’s war.
In his efforts to restore Jerusalem and refortify its walls, Nehemiah encouraged the people of this new Israel with these words as they faced opposition to their task: “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes.”
Do not be afraid. Remember. Fight. Maybe that is what we can take into 2025. What is it that you need to make war against in your life this year? What do you need to make peace with? How can you start right now? Do not be afraid of yourself, of your failure, of other’s rejection, of an unknown future. Remember the Lord, the King of glory, the Prince of peace, the glorious baby, the gracious friend, the sacrificial lamb who fought for you first. And fight – for what is good, for what is true, for what is beautiful.
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