The Constant Battle

The easiest thing to do in life is to give up. It’s easy to relent, it’s easy to give in, it’s easy to throw our hands up in disgust, exhaustion, or frustration and just go along like everybody else. This is why so many people do it. They get tired of fighting the current, of trying to swim upstream, because even though as individuals we get spent and exhausted, the tide is a constant, always pulling, pushing, trying to get us off balance and off kilter.

We keep forgetting that life is a marathon and not a sprint, and though we do well for a few days, or a couple of weeks, eventually life happens, distractions begin to appear, and what we were once passionate about, what we were once on fire for, begins to wane and dwindle.

This is as much true in the physical as it is in the spiritual, and we are warned regarding the dangers of losing our first love, of becoming lukewarm, of giving up and joining the rest of the spectators, munching on popcorn and a nice cold beverage. It’s a lot easier to sit by and critique others as they toil, than to get into the thick of it yourself, and run the risk of being targeted, of being singled out, and of being wounded. We have an aversion to exertion. This is why weight loss pills that promise results without exercise are so popular!

We choose champions because we are cowards, then critique the champions we’ve chosen to fight on our behalf because not only are we cowards, we are sanctimonious cowards.

“Is that the best you can do? Is that the most you can bleed? Try harder! We are not sufficiently entertained.”

Couple this with the ever pervasive platitudes that go against the grain of what Scripture clearly spells out, and not only do we have a generation that has chosen to give up the fight, they are told it was perfectly reasonable and understandable to do so.

From the ever popular ‘let go and let God’ to ‘Jesus take the wheel’ to a hundred other baseless mantras we see stenciled on pieces of wood hanging in Christians’ homes, the message of today’s church culture is crystal clear: Stop fighting the tide! Stop trying to stand in the gap! Go along. Let the current carry you, and don’t you dare feel bad about it.

I have yet to see ‘resist the devil and he will flee’ stenciled on any piece of wood, or ‘fight the good fight of faith’, or ‘all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution’. Those are not so popular anymore. They’ve fallen out of favor. They are deemed extreme, and confrontational. It’s so much easier just to keep your head down, your mouth shut, your eyes averted, as everything that is good and decent gets dismantled around you as everything beautiful and majestic gets sullied and soiled.

It’s okay though, Jesus wins in the end! I guess no one ever mentions that He wins in spite of you, in spite of your cowardice, in spite of your double mindedness, and in spite of your duplicity.

Not angry, just frustrated. We see it slipping away, and instead of trying to turn the tide, we bemoan its current flow. 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea Jr.