I have had so many fights to fight across the journey of my that I can't help but wonder why. But right now a very specific battle is choosing me. Do I tuck tail and quit? It is certainly the easier option, as it is a David and Goliath type of fight, one that I most certainly will not win. But what makes it not so easy to quit is that the circumstances are affecting me personally, meaning that it is my fight to fight. . . .so what am I going to do about it?
We may all want to live in a happy-go-lucky peaceful world, but that is not the way of life. We fight for our children in a million different ways. We fight oppression when it is forcing itself against a person's right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. We fight disease of a million faces when it invades a life and the relationships that surround in support. We fight governments and organizations that deny our rights. There are many fights to be fought, but they are always the fights that choose us. . . .the fights that drop themselves like houses falling out of tornado infested skies smack into the middle of the journey to our life purpose. But these life altering battles actually end up defining our life purpose by the forging of our character and the calling upon our personal passion with which we fight these most unwanted fights.
No one wants war, whether they be global, local, or personal. We all want peace. So how can peace and war coexist? Is there a way for a Peace Warrior to walk with integrity? There are many guides on how to fight this kind of fight because I'm not talking about battling injustice with violence. Jesus lived the truth of his passion telling us to Pick up your cross and follow me! This has always held great power for me in my journey, as this tells my heart that I am actually responsible to carry the burden of responsibility for my own fight. Gandhi showed another way to fight the fight, as did Martin Luther King, Jr.
These Peace Warriors serve as guides, not because they fought for other people, but because they responded to the battles that rose up in their time and space and chose them. They weren't fighting someone else's fight, they were fighting their own. And they didn't shrink away from the battle because it was uncomfortable or inconvenient, they rose up in protest at great personal cost.
There are many Peace Warriors in my life. My aunt who battled long and hard to make sure her two children received the medical interventions they needed in response to the unchosen birth defects. My friend whose parents are both battling for their lives. My cousin who battles for the environment, and her son who battles for the voiceless children on the other side of the world. My brother who battles diabetes and the ever encroaching disability that results. My friend whose husband battles throat cancer. And the list goes on and on. . . .but not a single one of these people wanted these battles. . . .no, these battles all chose them.
The powerlessness I feel about global battles does not apply here. In this situation I am not powerless at all. I hold a great deal of power because this is actually happening to me right here. . . .in this time and space. . . .and within my personal capabilities to stand up and fight. So now I have a choice to make. Is this battle worthy of being fought? Is it something I feel passionate enough about to step up and become a personal target of the subsequent negative forces that have already started to rise up and surround me with pressure to sit down quietly and stop making such a raucus? Do I silence my personal truth so that other people around me feel more comfortable?
I may not want this battle. . . .but I will most certainly find no peace if I simply turn around and quit.