Pick A Fight
I’m reading Bob Goff’s book Love Does a third time. I’ve never read any book three times, other than the Bible.
And this time, I’m reading it backwards. I started with Chapter 31 and I’m reading a chapter a day in reverse order. It’s like reading a different book. It’s good. When I re-read Chapter 28, there was an “ah ha” moment for me. Maybe for you too.
Goff tells about a bully from his childhood, a good-sized 7th grade kid named Dale who bullied and beat up the little guys in his the school. Goff was a big kid himself and one day, as he was watching Dale beat up another classmate…a little kid, he “called him out”, which was junior high-speak for “let’s have a fistfight.” They scheduled the fight after school the next day and by the time a teacher broke it up, “Dale was covered in blood. Nobody realized it was all mine…”
Goff had taken up the cause of the helpless, laying it all on the line. He doesn’t say if Dale stopped bullying. But he does tell about how that fight helped him see something about his ‘hardwiring’…how he’s “driven by the need to stand up for the little guy.” His work in Uganda is a shining example of how God is using his “hardwiring”, his legal skills, and his love for Jesus to redeem the lives of hundreds of “little guys.”
But the point of this story is this…
What fight have I picked?
It’s one thing to defend ourselves when we’re attacked. Most people will do that out of necessity. It’s another to go pick a fight… on behalf of someone or something.
Goff has picked a fight with the witch-doctors in Uganda, a group of crazed men who emasculate and kill young boys as a part of their evil rituals. He’s prosecuting them in court for the first time. Sending them to jail. Making examples of them, trying to stop these awful practices.
My friend Craig Muller has picked a fight with people who trade women and children. Sometimes for money. Sometimes for power. Sometimes putting them in institutions with horrid conditions, just to relieve their guilt. He’s rescued kids in the middle of the night, running with them through dark jungles with gunfire in the distance. He’s built over 300 church orphan homes, creating safe places where widows raise orphans as their own kids, creating families, safety, and love.
Andy Stanley has picked a fight with the traditional church. He didn’t set out to, but what he’s created at North Point Community Church and its affiliates is vibrating through the foundations of churches everywhere – – Churches who are more concerned with keeping people than reaching people. His new book, Deep and Wide dares church leaders to look at “church” through a different lens.
When you think about it, Jesus picked a fight. A big one. Not with politicians. Not with poverty. Not with disease. He picked a fight with religion.
So that brings me back to me. And to you.
What fight have we picked? What fight are we going to pick?
Question: Will you pray and ask God to show you your ‘fight’?
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Responses (6)
Regi, the timing of this post truly spoke to me. My fight happens to currently be in my own back yard. My fight is internal, to be a model of leadership and character for my family. It’s to encourage and inspire other men to shed the image of family idiot and take back the title of Family Leader.
You can’t export what you don’t have, so you’re smart to build that strength yourself before you start pushing it out. And know how the enemy is going to attack you…telling you “You’re not good enough”. “Keep quiet until you ‘get there'”…that kind of thing. So push on, recognizing how hard it is. Look for principles you can pass on. That’s what Jesus did. And all the good ones can be traced back to Him.
This was clarifying for me. No “what’s your purpose?” Or other deep question. Simply what is your fight?
My fight is to support and defend entrepreneurs. Thanks again for the tough question.
Merry Christmas!
Love Charlie
Well, unfortunately for you, that question comes tomorrow. But, maybe you’re not supposed to ask it. You’re such a man of prayer, maybe it’s as simple as asking God what He wants you to do and then doing it day by day. The temptation with that is asking God to bless your plans instead of listening hard for His. Maybe you just let those who survive you figure out your purpose after you’re dead.
Regi, great stuff. Bob’s book has really got me thinking about what I’m doing and if it’s what I’m supposed to. His courage and craziness is inspiring.
It’s got me doing more doing and less thinking. More micro action than macro thinking. I’m grateful for his book. And I told him.