We fight!

Why does everything have to be so hard?

It would seem something somewhere would be easy sometime. Right?

Well, we are IN THE WORLD. Stop; think on that. It's broken. WE ARE BROKEN! If there's rest, and when there's rest, it will be in the midst of this mess. Life is a fight.

A few years ago, I included this short story in a devotion: "Historian Shelby Foote tells of a soldier who was wounded at the battle of Shiloh during the American Civil War and was ordered to go to the rear. The fighting was fierce and within minutes he returned to his commanding officer. 'Captain, give me a gun!' he shouted. 'This fight ain't got any rear!'"

Switch up your expectation. (Wait...let me talk to me... Tim, switch up YOUR expectation!) We're in a conflict. It's cosmic in scope and all around us in fact. Many times, it's raging inside us! (check out 1 Peter 2:11 on that note) Let us stop thinking ANYTHING is supposed to be easy! Expect difficulty; prepare for it...and soldier on! Hear that, friend? SOLDIER ON!

Somebody needs this today! I need this today!

What must I do? Soldier up! Soldier up and don't get caught up in mess that's not my duty. "No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him." (2 Timothy 2:4 ESV)

As Coach Jimmy V said, "Don't give up!" Stay in the fight. Don't give up on yourself. Don't give up on waiting and depending on the Lord. Don't give up on resisting sin. Don't give up on serving others. Stay in the fray!

"But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses." (1 Timothy 6:11-12 ESV)

In a sermon called "Are You Fighting?", Bishop J.C. Ryle said, "The true Christian is called to be a soldier, and must behave as such from the day of his conversion to the day of his death, he is not meant to live a life of religious ease, indolence, and security, He must never imagine for a moment that he can sleep and dose along the way to heaven, like one travelling in an easy carriage. If he takes his standard of Christianity from the children of this world he may be content with such notions, but he will find no countenance for them in the Word of God. If the Bible is the rule of his faith and practice, he will find his lines laid down very plainly in this matter. He must 'fight.'"

Taking inspiration from the Red Tails Tuskeegee Airmen: "We fight!" Till the last saint, to the last day, to the last trumpet call, we fight!

Soldier up, men and women! Soldier up!