Keep Fighting Warrior
I have been feeling a little lost lately.
I'm having a hard time locating people who love God PASSIONATELY. WITH. ALL. THEIR. BROKEN. HEART.
And maybe I'm just missing what that looks like or I'm missing all the people around me who are.
Or maybe we're all just a little stressed, overworked and unconnected.
I don't know.
This is what I know.
The opposition is loud, LOUD, LOUD--banging on your head loud. The voices lately that have told me there is no time or interest in Bible studies or God stuff were the voices I trusted just a little while ago. I still feel the sting from the slap of those words.
And trusted voices seem uncompromising at the expense of the least of these.
And I have a hard time being OK with that.
And, it feels like some are just in for the easy way out. Not the well thought out or for the best, but they listen to the voices of those who GIVE. THE. MOST. MONEY and I don't know what to do with that.
Sigh.
As it happened (not coincidence) I found myself listening to a documentary on Christian musician TobyMac's journey and was reminded these desert moments come to us all. And in the desert we all choose who we will listen to. When Toby was faced with the pressure to become more mainstream he answered with "Jesus Freak."
In Jesus Freak Toby pointed to John the Baptist. And John pointed to Isaiah. And Isaiah could have pointed to Abraham. And Abraham was looking ahead to the eternal land because this world is not our home.
Thank God this world is not our home.
And at times the ache for the homeland is almost more than a person can take. Or so it seems.
The apostle Paul said it himself:
“We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself.”
But Paul didn't stop there.
“Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us again. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us...”
Now and then God allows the rug to be swept out from under us to show us how fleeting it all is; to show us He is the only foundation worth anything. And He is not going anywhere.
The tribe is there, but at times it is so terribly invisible.
If only, like Elisha's servant, we could see for one moment the chariots surrounding us (2 Kings 6:17), or see the hearts of the faithful all throughout the world.
But not yet. For now we walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). And we band with pilgrims who just like us keep plodding along, sowing seed and shaking the dust off our feet.
Keep fighting, warrior, even if you feel alone. Others still fight, too.
And the battle is worthy of the scars.
