The Chronicles of Men Part 3 – What Are You Fighting For?

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. ~ 2 Samuel 11:1

This passage initiates the soon to be one ugly scar in David’s reign as King–his murderous adultery with Bathsheba. How could “A man after God’s own heart” commit such a heinous sin? How could the model king have fallen so far? I think the answer lies in this verse. The time when kings go out to battle…But David remained at Jerusalem. See David had been a mighty man of war. He had led the Israelite army to many victories as God would always go before him. He was a warrior, heart and soul. But for some reason he chose to stay in Jerusalem–He chose passivity.

You see David’s men were out in the battle. They were fighting.   Fighting for the glory of Israel. They had a holy calling and faith and belief in God. David on the other hand got bored. The warrior inside of him got restless. The man that was made to fight had nothing to fight for. So he ended up fighting for the wrong thing…

How often does this happen in our own lives men? We lose, or maybe never find, our high calling. Yet the fight and the warrior inside of us do not disappear. So we aimlessly wander and allow our sinful flesh begin to take over. Men we are meant to fight! We are meant to go to battle everyday! So the question is…

What are you fighting for?

 What is your cause men? What drives you? What gets you up in the morning? What makes your heart come alive? What is God calling you to spend your warrior passions on? Your calling, your battle must come from the Lord. For anything else will be fighting against Him, a battle you will not win. Maybe you are meant to fight for time with God. Maybe you are meant to fight for your friends. Maybe you are meant to fight for your wife. Maybe you are meant to fight for the truth of what God says about you. Whatever the calling, once you decide to step onto the battlefield-that excitement, that yearning from deep inside your soul will come alive. 

Why do we men love great battle movies? Why do we love to watch Gladiator, Braveheart, 300? Each movie speaks to the warrior inside of us. Each movie stirs our spirits to step off the sideline and into the fight. They give us a taste of the freedom living out how we were created. 

This month the M squad men have been doing a lot of manual labor. We have Bible study together at 7:30 in the morning, then we work all day in the hot Thailand sun, and lastly, we listen to an extended testimony of one of the brothers. Our days are pretty packed and exhausting. There really isn’t ample opportunity for alone time with God. So I have had to fight for it each day by getting up at 6:30. Most days I really don’t feel like it. But it’s a fight, it’s a battle I get to step into each morning. Just a simple attitude shift has changed everything. Instead of just trying to get up, I get to call on the warrior inside of me and fight for my relationship with God.

God has also given me a World Race high calling–conveniently enough it is the M squad men. Often times I feel my flesh desiring to be passive. I could easily sneak off by myself and just spend time with God. I could laugh and joke and be content with shallow relationships. But that is not what God has called me to. He has given me a passion for the men on this squad to walk into the lives He imagined from the beginning. So each day is a new battle. Each day is a new day to fight for deep and intimate relationships. An opportunity to see and call out the Christ living in each and every one of them. Instead of going through the motions, my heart gets to come alive each morning and be the warrior that God wove into my heart.