Skip to main content

Picking a Fight



It’s nearly impossible to passively coast through life. While some may be characterized by being proactive and others as reactive, everyone must choose a fight in which to engage. Boiled down to a very simple dichotomy, you can fight for the things you do want in life or be relegated to fight against the things in your life you don’t want.

Fighting for the things you do want means identifying and pursuing the elements of greatest value to you. The aspects of life that really make you tick, that make your heart come alive and ignite a burning within your soul. These are the things you may be able to exist without, but in their absence, you wouldn’t be truly living. Whether it’s your passions, a vocational calling, your family or a cause, these areas refuse to be quieted within your spirit and demand deliberate and determined action to pursue.

And if you aren’t fighting for those things of greatest value, you will likely end up fighting against negative factors that have crept into your life in the absence of the former. Mediocrity, laziness, boredom, lack of fulfillment, dead-end jobs, toxic relationships, directionless wanderings, noisy distractions and hollow comforts are the things you will find taking up residence in your life where your passions and callings were meant to be built.

This is not to say these battles don’t happen simultaneously. I believe they do. But I also have come to learn that the more I am fighting for and filling my life with that which is truly precious, the less room there is for the dross and empty pursuits to invade my thoughts and my time.

So, hands up. Chin down. Go pick your fight!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Toxic Humility

We have all seen false humility: the guy who tries to hide his arrogance with feigned modesty. It’s usually pretty obvious and always obnoxious. But there is also another variation of false humility out there: toxic humility. This is often displayed in self-deprecating talk and a lack of self-confidence, belittling or undermining one’s own talents and abilities. The danger in this kind of behavior is twofold: it is too often accepted as true humility and like a virus, it spreads doubt and disbelief. To clarify, it is not that the bearer of this toxic humility isn’t honest about his view of himself. That is the very issue: he absolutely believes he has little value or utility. He thinks downplaying his own worth is humility but I disagree. CS Lewis said it best when he wrote, “Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it's thinking about yourself less.” His point being, true humility is not an ever-present raincloud of self-doubt that follows you around. It’s a focus on...

Flower Among Thorns

About six or seven years ago, my wife was around three months pregnant as we eagerly anticipated the birth of another child. One night, as I lay sleeping, I had a dream that our baby was born. It was a beautiful little girl with thin, wispy hair and large, bright eyes punctuating her beautiful face. I held her proudly in my arms and stared down at this precious little creation. I carefully handed her off to her older brother, who was just a toddler himself, as he sat on the coach, arms outstretched, anxiously awaiting the chance to hold his baby sister. I helped him prop up a pillow underneath his little arms to help support my daughter and then stepped back to take in the amazing sight as he gazed down at her with both pride and amazement in his eyes. As I stood there watching them, the dream quickly faded. When I woke up, my eyes met the tearful glance of my wife. “I’m bleeding,” she said as she fought back the emotions, “I think I am miscarrying.” Those words sunk deeply i...

The Art of Intentionality

  “Intentional living is the art of making our own choices before others’ choices make you.” – Richie Norton   I am not even sure who Richie Norton is, but I love that quote! I imagine a ship drifting out to sea, pushed around by the wind and the waves. No course of direction, yet the captain is frustrated when the ship ends up dashed against the rocks, trapped on a sandbar or marooned on an inhospitable island. It is easy to complain when life takes us where we do not want to go. But who is really to blame if we have never set our sails to align us along an appropriate course? Do we blame the waves, wind and the weather? Or should we blame the captain of the ship? It is our life and our ship. We must set our sails with intentionality and determined choices. Otherwise, we are doomed to aimlessly drift along according to the choices and decisions of others.