A personal fight

I want to save the world. But I don’t want to do it one person at a time. I want to create new programs, write new books, teach new lessons - that somehow can reach the masses. 

Then I am reminded...the fight is personal.

The change I long for, that I seek in the world - for good to overtake bad, for the truth to be told, for people to see and believe - it’s not in a church program. It’s not in a public policy. Well, it is, but before it’s in programs and policies, it’s in people. And people are my first “ministry.” It is indeed personal, and it’s worth fighting for.

A while back, I became fascinated with fighting, and I wrote a lot about it. A series of posts involved fighting with grace, standing your ground to fight, fighting in the shade, having the courage to fight, and ending the fight. The intrigue with fighting began a few years ago as I looked in the Bible to the book of Nehemiah. Chapter 4, verse 14, particularly interested me.

In the NLT it reads,

As I looked over the situation, I called together the nobles and the rest of the people and said to them, “Don’t be afraid of the enemy! Remember the Lord, who is great and glorious, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes!

The more I soaked in these words, the more I felt compelled to fight. But the fighting I envisioned was more public than personal. I wanted to change culture. I wanted to fight for my children and my marriage and my family, but I had somehow falsely believed the arena to be more collective than individual.

The fight is personal. It’s extremely personal. It’s for persons named Keith, Page, and Graham. And it is a culture war. But it’s a culture war I fight from my home for my people. That’s the first fight...for the people God has put directly in front of me. And of course, when you fight for people - for their lives and their hearts and their souls - you do indeed change the culture, one person at a time.

Even when it looks like there’s no progress. Even though no books are sold. Even if it doesn’t garner a certain amount of social media accolades. Even if the masses aren’t moved. The fight is for more than the world.

The fight is personal.