Starting, it requires somewhere and nowhere all at once: the art of anywhere. So starting isn’t the problem; no, the problem is never how we enter and see. Instead, the problem lies more in how we exit and believe.
Ending, then, might be the problem. The solution is where it becomes interesting, for the nature of the problems make it hard to exit. There are patterns and patches, a stronghold; a tightly clenched fist on an event or emotion, those certain experiences which have shaped and changed us, plowing trenches into the pasture of our personality.
The battlefield.
Are we on the front line, or near the back? Who knows? All we know is the attack. The constant darts to dreams; arrows to our identity. We try to shield ourselves; but what are we shielding ourselves from? Is it those darts and arrows, or is there a bigger enemy?
Should we be trying to seek shelter, or stepping away from the shield to face the fear; that which holds a weapon against our worth? Maybe the problem is we are buried in a battle we don’t know how to fight. We don’t know how we came to be in this war, we don’t know because we try to see, when perhaps the truth is, the battle transcends reality. The warfare is not tangible in flesh and blood, so we dismiss the power of this enemy. Yet. We know there is more than meets the eye.
We sense this enemy.
The threats.
The lies.
The disguise.
The danger.
We finger the fear, we let it grip our loins, when we need to rip the fear to shreds and stand in faith instead. Faith is a nice notion, no?
Believing in what is not seen. Believing in a Salvador who might fight this enemy.
This war is supernatural, yet we enter and see with our human eyes and mind; thus, we miss the impenetrability of the war within, the hold it has on every aspect of life. We try to exit and flee, to run away from all this suffering and wounding, and when it gets to the end of the day, we don’t know what to believe.
We don’t know who or what to trust.
We feel deceived.
We wonder, what do people truly think of me? What do people truly see? Because what we see and think scares us. We witness the war against our worth, and we are immersed in the insults to our identity, the assault to our acceptance.
There is a war waging.
We don’t know how to fight.
We don’t know who is on our side.
We try to deny, deny, deny.
We try to hide, hide, hide.
We listen to these other voices that might lull us into this false sense of security. Until the war works its way back to this middle ground. Where the dart hits direct, a dagger, an arrow deep in the marrow. A problem space, the place we fall back to when we realise there are many things in life that we just don’t know how to face.
So we find ourselves here, surrounded by fear.
The solution is a question, not a state or a start or even an end. No, the solution is dependent on a stance. What will we take? What will we face? How will we fight? The decision we make will shape our lives.
It will start or end.
It will be shield or sword.
Fear or faith.
Hide or fight.
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm — Ephesians 6:10-13
Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul — 1 Peter 2:11
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses — 2 Corinthians 10:3-4
Be of sober spirit, be on the alert Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour — 1 Peter 5:8
Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called, and you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses — 1 Timothy 6:12
Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus — 2 Timothy 2:3
