Fight

 

There’s a growl from the brush, the sound of the predator creeping towards us. The sound is dampened, as the rush of fear takes hold. An invisible power holds my feet to the ground in place, as I turn slowly to view the inevitable lunge I expect. I hold my breath, barely moving my lungs, as if this would hide me. Courage has left my heart, and terror has taken its grasp. Slowly I step back from the bushes, as I shake, watching them with my eyes wide, and my fist clinched, hoping to escaped the doom. I have avoided him this time, but eventually, I fear that I must face this one who hunts me.

(This is not the one that hunts me… though she looks like she could be :P )

Across the horizon I see him. My enemy has returned. He who has vowed to destroy me, he who has prophesied my end, is standing in my path. Even at this distance, I can hear the sound of his sword as it leaves the sheath, shrieking out like an evil spirit in rage. I stop and stare as my enemy slowly paces towards me. For a moment I stand frozen in decision. Do I flee? Could I out run him? Should I run, or should I stand? Could this be that defining moment of victory? The one I would tell my grandchildren about as they prepare to face the challenges of life? Or could this be the moment people would remember, the instance I should have turned and run, the time when I lost it all? To flight, or to fight: is there really a choice at all? He approaches.

We know it will come soon enough. Peace in life is only peace because we can compare it to times of trouble. The valleys prove us, define us, and inspire others. Who cares about the one who lived a lavish, pleasure filled life, without struggle or trial? The ones remembered from history, the ones we look to for example, the heroes, they had to fight. They faced insurmountable odds, and massive forces of opposition. If not, you would never know their name, or care to. Kings have conquered nations, the names of which we will never know, but those who braved the face of death to map our continent, their names we know. Rich men have moved politics and decided the fate of millions of lives, but they can be lost in the past while surfacing to the top is the poor one who stood up and defied tyranny, though it cost him his life.

Many are near to us. Those we love, those who love us, those who need us and those who watch. The masses horde together, like the cattle funnelled towards the slaughter. Their eyes glazed over with false hope and no concern. They follow the ones in front, like the ones in front follow the ones in front. The world is a stream of fluid folly, falling towards the flame, just enjoying the ride. It is not nations that destroy the souls of men. It is not the slaughterhouse of the end of sin that kills for profit. The masses live a lifeless grey existence of hopeless search because the ones who have been raised and groomed and called to be heroes have stared across the valley at their enemy, sheathed their swords, and left their people to die. You know what you are. You know what you could be. You have a responsibility to them to use what you have been given to give them hope.

“Give me a man!” says evil’s champion. I say, give him too many to handle. I say, face his challenge with fight! I say rise up! No longer hide in the shadows, while your people face evil’s attack without resistance or hope. You must fight, not with violence, but with the power and strength to move the hearts of men from demise to determination. Strength of body may win a scuffle, but wars for freedom, and right of the soul are won by strength of spirit and determination of heart.

 

Show us a hero, and we will follow you to victory. Accept the challenge to fight for right, and our honour will drive us to follow you to battle. Be a fighter, not for the pride of the fight, but for love of the ones that you will save. This fight, the fight of today, is not unlike other times. The question is, will you dare to stand and fight?

“And Jonathan said to the young man that bare his armour, Come, and let us go over unto the garrison of these uncircumcised (foreign enemies): it may be that the LORD will work for us: for there is no restraint to the LORD to save by many or by few. And his armourbearer said unto him, Do all that is in thine heart: turn thee; behold, I am with thee according to thy heart... And Jonathan climbed up upon his hands and upon his feet, and his armourbearer after him: and they fell before Jonathan; and his armourbearer slew after him. And that first slaughter, which Jonathan and his armourbearer made, was about twenty men, within as it were an half acre of land, which a yoke of oxen might plow... And there was trembling in the host (of the enemy), in the field, and among all the people: the garrison, and the spoilers, they also trembled, and the earth quaked: so it was a very great trembling. And the watchmen of Saul in Gibeah of Benjamin looked; and, behold, the multitude melted away, and they went on beating down one another... And Saul (the King of Israel) and all the people that were with him assembled themselves, and they came to the battle: and, behold, every man's sword was against his fellow, and there was a very great discomfiture. Moreover the Hebrews that were with the Philistines before that time, which went up with them into the camp from the country round about, even they also turned to be with the Israelites that were with Saul and Jonathan. Likewise all the men of Israel which had hid themselves in mount Ephraim, when they heard that the Philistines fled, even they also followed hard after them in the battle. So the LORD saved Israel that day:”(portions of 1 Samuel 14:6-23)