Today I watched a game about the strategy behind winning
war, “The Art of War” in the form of a film.
And it got me to thinking about life and how our lives are just like
war, and how each of the challenges that we face in our lives are our battles. The thing about our battles is that we must
face, fight and win each of them, one battle at a time. For
the first time, I finally understood the meaning of the saying, “Life is not
about the destination, but the journey”, up until today, I always thought that
was just some crap people try to pacify you with when you lose. But if that is true, it must also be true
that if Life is like war, it’s not about just winning the war, but about how we
fight and how we win the battles along the way that really make us the winners
we become, when we finally do conquer our opponents. It truly
does matter how we win and not just that we win.
The way that we fight our battles, says so much about who we
are, the amount of integrity that we employ, the ethics in the execution of our
tactics and how we affect everyone around us who is watching us fight our
battles matters as well. It’s important
that we remember that it’s not just the soldiers on our team who will be
watching us; our enemies will be watching us as well. When we are tasked with making decisions on
the strategies that we will use to win our battles, we have the power to affect
those that we come in contact with in a positive way as well as a negative one;
every battle is an opportunity to effectuate a positive or negative change through
the impression that we leave as we walk away from the battlefield; choice is up
to us.
No one wins every battle that they fight, and whether or not
you win or you lose, it really is about how you play the game. And if you are fighting a worthy adversary,
in the end, they will respect the way that you played the game, no matter the
outcome of the battle.
For me when it comes to adversaries, I know that I can face
no opponent greater than myself. More
often than not, I am my own worst enemy, and the majority of my biggest battles
begins, are fought and won or lost, first, right inside of my own head. There have been so many times that I missed
out on my blessings simply because I lost the battle in my head and talked
myself out of ever going out into the world and onto life’s real battlefield. Man, make no mistake about it, the battle that
we have with our daily thoughts is the most fierce scuffle that we will ever
fight. What I am discovering is that in
order to successfully
and consistently win our worldly battles, we must first learn how to win the tug-o-war
with ourselves that is taking place in
our minds before the main event begins; mastering this skill is what will ultimately determine whether or not we succeed at winning the war.
So then I started thinking again…if life is like war and
each of the obstacles we face are like battles, what weapons has God given us
to fight it? I believe that God has given each of us a different set of weapons
to fight, since each of our battles are as different as we are. The battles that we fight are determined for
each of us, depending on what purpose God has assigned to our lives. The battles we fight train us and groom us to
be the people that we are ultimately meant to be. Therefore the weapons that are given to us
will also be designed around helping us fulfill that purpose. For example, my gifts and talents, also known
as my weapons, are centered on words. I
fight my battles as a writer by using the sword of the written word and as a
radio show host and film producer with the spoken word. I believe that God gifted me with these
talents to fight each of my battles until I ultimately reach my goal, and to
effectuate a positive change through each and every person that I might
encounter along the way.
I am one of “Those People” that really believes that our
words have power. I believe that, “The pen is mightier than the sword,” (Edward
George Bulwer Lytton), and that “A man will be satisfied with good by the fruit
of his words, from the fruit of his mouth will a man have good food in full
measure”, (Proverbs 12:14). But I also
believe that, “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against
principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this
world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12). And if I believe that this is true then I also
know that God, in His infinite love for us, must’ve also equipped us with some
equally potent weapons to fight these spiritual battles that we too often
encounter. If we read carefully, it’s
easy to see that all of the clues to winning are written in God’s word, for
example, Proverbs 18:21 says this; “Death and life are in the power of the
tongue”. It was only after reading that
scripture that it became easy for me to deduce that through daily prayer and renewing
my mind by reading the word of God that I learned how to use His words as
weapons to use to my advantage in winning these types of battles as well.
The written word of God and the words of our
mouths through prayer and the seeds that we plant through the words we speak, are weapons that God has given us all access
to in order to fight the self-defeating thoughts that we struggle continuously
with. But for me, words are also the
personal gifts and talents that God has given me to fight the battles of my
personal war and to achieve my life’s purpose.
So now I challenge everyone that takes the time to read this, to
discover and to utilize their own individual gifts and talents that God has
given to them in order to fight and win all of the battles that they may face,
as well as winning the ultimate victory in the war of life. And don’t forget to leave a lasting and
positive impression on this world before you leave by inspiring and encouraging
everyone you encounter along the way.
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