To Fight the Good Fight

Lately I've become contented with the life I'm living and the strife within me is dissipating gradually. This year is such a stark contrast from the previous year's busyness. I struggled with my significance and achievements and God has been reminding me that He is working in me so that He can work through me. It's a hard lesson for a guy to learn, given that we find our identity in our accomplishments and things we succeed in.

Through this season of taking care of Mom, God has taught me what it means to love. I've seen myself progressed from being very detached in supporting her, to really loving her well. It's truly God's way of experiential learning, and that obedience is first learnt then taught. I'm not very involved in ministry this year and it's a good opportunity to build the substructure of my inner life, to allow God to shape, mold and form my character, which is almost never an easy process. I've seen really ugly sides of me as the Spirit reveals and deals with and it makes me groan like Paul that "What a wretched man I am!" haha.

As I was preparing 1 Timothy for the guys mentoring, I was able to understand Paul's charge to Timothy to "fight the good fight" better. As Timothy was faced with a difficult time in having to correct the problems in the Ephesian Church leadership, Paul reminded Timothy of his responsibility and to persevere in both his ministry and life, of which there is no distinction. The phrase translated literally means to "war the good warfare" and it is really of a soldier fighting well to emerge victorious in a war, not just a single fight. Metaphorically, it is a reminder that we need to endure hardship and difficulties in this life of constant spiritual conflict and to stay true to our calling. I think it was Paul's way of slapping Timothy on his back and urging him to fight on with all he had as a good soldier. It is a great encouragement to me, to press on likewise and to give all I got in the service of my Lord.