Our faith is worth fighting for. We’re even told to expect a fight and to
armor ourselves accordingly (Ephesians 6:10-18). I’ll even go so far as to say that we should
seek out a fight, and we should battle with tooth and nail to win. But what we should be fighting is an area of
contention among us. Here are seven areas
we should be banding together to battle and one battle we’re fighting that we
shouldn’t be.
Battles We Should
Be Fighting (For and Against)
1) Hunger (Against) What would you do if you were given the
opportunity to have Jesus Christ as a dinner guest in your home? Most of us would likely jump at the chance. We’d scrub every surface, vacuum and mop
every floor, set out our finest dinnerware, and prepare a grand meal. Well guess what? You’ve got that chance. Jesus said, “For I was hungry and you gave me
something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a
stranger and you invited me in” (Matthew 25:35). What, you don’t remember having Jesus as a
dinner guest? He goes on to say, “Truly
I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters
of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).
There are opportunities aplenty for fighting this battle. Need a place to start? Check out
Action Against Hunger and
Water.org.
2) Orphans (For) Imagine if between a half and two-thirds of
the United States were orphans.
According to a recent UNICEF report(
1), that is the
estimated number of orphans in the world today (143 million to 210
million). Without parents to guide and
provide for them, they have a difficult road ahead. Older orphans are particularly vulnerable, to
abuse, suicide, slavery, or becoming child soldiers(
2). James tells us, “Religion that God our Father
accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in
their distress” (1:27a). Need a place to
start? Check out
Harvest Ministry and
OrphanHope International.
3) Widows (For) This is a battle that is often tragically
overlooked. Losing any loved one is
difficult, but losing a spouse is particularly devastating. In the US, the primary hurdles that widows
face are financial hardship and loneliness/grief. “Statistics on widows age 65 and over show
that five years after they were widowed 9.4% were living below the low-income
threshold” (
3). Elsewhere in the world, widowed women face
even larger hurdles as they are often shunned from society. One woman from India said of being a widow,
“We are considered bad omens. We are
excluded from all auspicious events.” Another
from Nigeria said, “We are treated like animals just because we are
widows.” And a woman from Bangladesh said,
“We have no shelter, my children can no longer go to school.” (
4). How can you help? Start by checking out
Widows’ Rights International and
Widows Ministry.
4) Poverty (Against)
The problem of poverty is difficult to grasp in the US. We are the richest country in the world. Does your household make $35,000 a year or
more? You are in the top 4% of wealth in
the world. $50,000 or more? You’re in the top 1%. There is often a stigma against the poor that
they could get out of poverty if they would just be willing to work, but this
is not the case in most instances. In
poor countries, in particular, people often know what they could do to improve
their standard of living, but they are unable to do so because they have no
money to begin with. For example, they
may know that buying a goat to milk would pay for itself in two months and
would then bring sustainable income to be able to send their children to
school, but that knowledge does no good if they have no money to buy the goat
to begin with, nor any way to even get a loan for the goat. There are tons of ways you can help. Two of my favorites are
Zidisha and
World Concern.
5) Healthy Marriages
(For) It is an institution that we claim to value very highly, yet the
divorce rates among Christians are just as high as, if not higher than,
non-Christians. We live in a society
where feelings are perceived to be all that matter in relationships. If our feelings towards a spouse change, we
should just divorce and start again with fresh feelings with someone else. But what if we started placing commitment and
loyalty above feelings? In most cases,
people do not cut blood relatives out of their lives because of feelings. How much less so should they be cutting out
the one with whom they have been made one flesh? That’s not to say it’s easy. It’s hard.
It’s hard to do the right thing.
There will be challenges, hurdles, and difficulties galore. But the greatest love stories are the ones
where two people supported one another through the most difficult circumstances
and came out stronger in the end. If
they were worth fighting for to make them your spouse, they’re worth fighting
for to keep them your spouse. One great
resource for this is
Focus on the Family.
6) Sex Trafficking
(Against) Think this just happens in backwater countries halfway across the
world? Wrong. This is the most prevalent form of slavery
today and it’s happening in our own backyard.
In 2005, the Department of Justice reported there have been an estimated
100,000 to 150,000 sex slaves in the US since 2001. A 2009 study estimated nearly 300,000 youth
in the US were at risk of being sexually exploited for commercial uses. This involves girls as young as 5 or 6 years
old (
5). Need a place to start helping? In many cases, generating awareness to help
local organization is the greatest need.
Also check out the organizations listed at
WakePeopleUp.com.
7) Needs in Our Own Backyard We Christians often get the idea that we have
to
go somewhere in order to do any good, but there are plenty of
“mission” opportunities right in your own backyard. There are needs that need to be met and
people whose lives you could be impacting in a positive way. You probably won’t have to search very far in
order to find an organization that is meeting needs in your community. There is a fantastic organization in my
community called
Mission Arlington. They help low-income families and individuals
with food, tutoring, furniture, rental assistance, health, dental, etc. It’s truly amazing all that they do. There is also an organization I’m familiar
with in Austin, TX called the
KarpophereĊ Project (KP Project for short). They work with people who once suffered from
chronic homelessness. If you have a
backyard and are willing, they will come and plant a garden in your
backyard. Then, they’ll come once or
twice a week to tend the garden and harvest the fruit/vegetables. As the homeowner, you get half of the
produce. The other half is sold at a
local farmers market, and the proceeds go to the chronically homeless, which
“can help take the financial edge off societal reintroduction.” These are great organizations, but the thing
is, they may not be right for your community.
Take the time to find what needs are in your community and what you can
do to help meet them.
The Battle We
Should Not Be Fighting
1) Sin in
Non-Believers Far too much of our
energy is spent fighting sin in non-believers.
We do this thinking it will actually do some good, but our own Bible
tells us otherwise. If your
non-believing brother quits sinning, will it earn him a place in the Kingdom of
Heaven? No. Will he be any closer to God? No. So
stop fighting a battle you cannot win.
Our fight against sin in non-believers is a band-aid on a broken
bone. Wouldn’t it be far better if we
mended the broken bone? We can do this
by demonstrating Christ’s love by fighting the right battles. Then we will be the salt and light to the
world that Jesus spoke of Matthew 5:13-16 and people will see true value in
Christ.
“You
are the salt of the earth. But if the
salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to
be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A
town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it
gives light to everyone in the house. In
the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good
deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:13-16).
