Fighting

All of us have fights we are fighting. I talk often about our fight against the enemy…. it is constant and a fight worth fighting.

We also fight with other people. Now we are clever enough not to call them fights. We might say we have a “disagreement” or an “argument” or we might call it a “struggle” but face it, sometimes we are just having a fight. I confess to “fighting” with a couple of my sons this weekend and if I told you about the conversations you would shake your head…. and probably laugh because in retrospect it is funny…. but you would definitely understand why I felt a need to “fight.” As they battle their own mental health issues, I am their target and I confess to fighting against that sometimes.

Maybe it isn’t someone in your family that you fight with, but it could be someone at work, someone at church, a neighbor….. and it eats away at us, but it happens. We can’t control them…. only our response to them, and sometimes it requires a “fight.”

We also fight for things — for justice, to advocate for the vulnerable, to change things.

Or we fight against disease. Or injustice. Or wrongs that we see happening around us.

I am in a constant battle with myself as well. The apostle Paul talks about how he did things he didn’t want to do. Some of you know I’m “dieting” and this is a constant battle. I was inn Walgreens this morning (I was getting medicine for Bart who is sick) and literally stood and argued with myself (internally in case you’re picturing me acting like a crazy person) for two full minutes before I walked away from this gorgeous box of Cheeze-it Grooves. The struggle is real.

We fight ourselves for other reasons as well. We fight our lack of self discipline. We fight our desire to buy things we don’t need. We fight lust for things, people, power. And all of these are fights worth fighting.

But today I’m here to tell you that there is one fight that we do NOT have to fight any more. We don’t have to wrestle with the past. We don’t have to beat ourselves up about things that we have done, sins we have committed, failures, mistakes, etc. We don’t have to engage in that battle any more.

Why? Because it’s already been won…. so shake off those heavy chains, as the song says, and remember, that you are redeemed!

(And if you’ve never watched this video you should — I love how much passion he puts into his music…..)