“Wrong turn” or “Can’t lose the fighting spirit”

Let us in all the troubles of life remember — that our one lack is life — that what we need is more life — more of the life-making presence in us making us more, and more largely, alive. Let us rouse ourselves to live. Of all things let us avoid the false refuge of a weary collapse, a hopeless yielding to things as they are…he has the victory who, in the midst of pain and weakness, cries out…for strength to fight; for more power, more consciousness of being, more God in him. (MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons)

Pulled it from an old John Eldredge newsletter. The key phrase that struck me was: "Of all things, let us avoid the false refuge of a weary collapse, a hopeless yielding to things as they are…"

That’s exactly what I’ve done the past three weeks or so; I wearily collapsed and hopelessly yielded.

Where’d my fighting spirit go? Not sure, exactly, but it went something like this: It was lost when I set it down along a dark path. Without any illumination (word of God), I couldn’t find it again. And as I was continually terrorized in the dark, I gave up the search and sought safety by lying face-down in the dirt, with my hands protecting the back of my head…and then I curled in a fetal position and took some more beating.

At some point, I fought a bit…and I rolled onto my back and kicked and flailed. Then I got tired and just laid again.

And while I was laying, some others came down the path. Illuminating Word of God in hand, they shed some light on the pitiful situation, lifted me to my feet, and helped me find illumination of my own.