“Life’s not a battle…unless you choose to fight.”
I wrote that several years ago in a social media post. I was amazed by how many people disagreed. It’s almost as though they wanted to, uh, fight?
Gotta fight, they said. Gotta fight evil. Gotta fight the enemy. Gotta fight sin. Gotta fight human trafficking. Gotta fight crime, and drugs, and all sorts of other things.
I thought a lot about those responses, because it’s certainly true there’s a lot of bad stuff in the world. And I don’t want to be aligned with it.
But… do I have to fight it?
Dr. King famously said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
He was, I think, trying to help us understand why Jesus told us to love our enemies.
At the FREEDOM TOUR, we no longer talk about “fighting” human trafficking. We try to talk about what we do, not what we oppose.
So we support a group of kids we’ve been rescued. We encourage Project Rescue missionaries who do the hard work every day in the red light districts of forming relationships – not just with victims, but with the traffickers as well. They offer aid and comfort, no strings attached.
It’s difficult, dangerous work. So why did they do it?
Because Jesus said so.
This is an interesting thought that I agree can align us better with Jesus. Fighting and taking intentional action are not synonymous. Like the quote you referenced from Dr. King, if we use our energy to lovingly shine light, our world will be a better place.
Yeah, but it’s not easy, is it? For me, at least, the first instinct is to strike back. Jesus’ way takes real discipline.