"Fight!!!" - Butler, Pennsylvania, July 13th, 2024.
Let’s be clear, this page hasn’t, nor ever will be a platform to discuss political parties and their platforms.? Those are great (maybe?) discussions to have with your tribe and even your classrooms in the relative comfort of your homes and living spaces.? But to not acknowledge the event that occurred over the weekend would be a dereliction of my duty similarly if I didn’t talk bout Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Israel over the past three years of my time here.
???? For those who may have been on vacation or simply don’t “do” news and social media on the weekend (you would be my hero, by the way), someone took a shot (ok, more than one) at one of the presidential candidates this weekend during a campaign rally.? The nation is still grappling with its reaction to it.? And quite possibly, some of you are as well.?
???? There most likely is a great message here on how to conduct respectful discourse with each other. We all can use more of that. Other ones come to mind too, like “don’t try to assassinate people”.? But I will save those for another time.
???? I want to talk about “fight!”.? Yes, I am sure millions of bumper stickers, pins, and shirts are already in production with the soon-to-be iconic photo of the former President with his fist defiantly in the air surrounded by the heroic men and women on his Secret Service detail. I deliberately didn’t attach it, because you all have already seen it, or soon will on a massive scale.
??? As I began with, there is no room for politics here. In truth, I have always been interested in the political landscape, and thought it provided great theater.? Too soon for an obscure Abe Lincoln reference?? And as great theater will do, it can help provide an analogy to the life we are living.
???? How are you fighting today?? For your spouse?? Your children? Your heart?? Paul wrote this to Timothy a couple millennia ago: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” (2 Timothy 4:7).? We are called to keep the faith as we fight and finish our race…..but how?
???? The past couple of weeks have focused on spiritual muscle, so I don’t want to regurgitate them here. There are times I am very guilty of providing a checklist that makes it sound as if we do certain things, we somehow “earn” our way to salvation.? “Open His Word”, “go to church!”, “listen to Brandon Lake”, and other options can come across as something to check off on your daily/weekly to-do list. I apologize.
???? So let me focus on what Paul adds in his letter to the church of Ephesus.? He talks about the “full armor” of God, which is comprised of a “belt of truth”, a “breastplate of righteousness”, the “shoes of the Gospel”, a “shield of faith”, the “helmet of salvation”, the “sword of the spirit” and finally the ultimate weapon of “prayer” (Ephesians 6: 10-17).
???? Without this armor, we have no chance against a determined enemy whose mission is nothing less than our destruction.? Like we see continuously all around us, you have been engaged in the most important battle of our lives. Facing it alone, or neglecting the gifts God has given us sets us up for failure.
???? Let me encourage you today to fight, to have the faith Paul wrote about to Timothy.? There are no higher stakes.
I am fighting for my daughter, Cate. Who are you fighting for today?
???? **I know there are times I come across as flippant and irreverent. Any attempt at levity is my “military culture” coming to a head, and is one of my purposes here as the Veterans Experience Director – to share a “different” perspective with our civilian community. I all to well understand that one of Christ’s children was taken home during this event on Saturday, and I don’t demean his loss, nor the “forever” impact this has on his family.? I will be praying for his family today, and ask you to join me in that effort.