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Why You Need to Pick a Fight

My list of things that I decided to do this year starts with these three words: “Pick a fight.”

That might sound a little odd at first. I picked a fight with Dale Gardener when I was in the seventh grade. He was huge. He almost blocked the sun when he walked by. I didn’t like Dale because he was a bully and beat up the little guys on campus. I’m not sure why he didn’t like me, maybe because I wasn’t a little guy.

It was pretty easy to pick a fight with Dale, actually.

I told Dale one day when he was beating up another kid that I was “calling him out.” That’s junior high speak for let’s have a fist fight; so we did. We really didn’t settle anything in the cul de sac a few days later other than trade bloody noses and let off some steam.

We both got expelled for a couple of days (which just made for a long weekend), and by Monday we were back at school exchanging gunslinger stares as we passed each other in the hallways.

That’s not the kind of fight I was referring to when I made my list.

I want to pick a fight where I can make a meaningful difference somewhere in the world.

It’s not a fight with a particular person or institution; I want to pick one fight among the many fights being waged on the planet and see if there is a way I can get some skin in the game; to help in some way; to make a tangible difference.

It’s easier to pick an opinion than it is to pick a fight. It’s also easier to pick an organization or a jersey and identify with that fight than it is to actually pick your own, commit to it, call it out and take a swing.

Picking a fight isn’t neat either. It’s messy. It’s time consuming. It’s painful. It’s costly. Stated differently, it’s what many of us should be all about as followers of Jesus.

There’s a character in the Bible named Joshua. Over and over, the phrase “be strong and courageous” repeats itself to Joshua and those traveling in his posse.

It doesn’t say we’re supposed to be wild at heart, or man up, or dance around the fire naked and tell manly stories. We’re just supposed to be strong and courageous. That’s it. The way I read it, it sounds an awful lot like God is calling us out and telling us to pick a fight.