Real Men Make War

I have a really interesting way of cooping with problems. Usually is starts with a really defeated attitude about the problem. The more drastic the likelihood of failure the easier I get a child like attitude. Then, all at once... I get really really really angry. I get so indignant about the situation and furious at the idea that a situation has trapped me. Usually at this point I go to War. I start searching for any and every tool that could possibly help me in the situation. Then I start using those tools to fight. More often than not I get pretty belligerent and impossible to detour.

Lately I've been trying to skip that first time and just go straight to war. When a situation pops up I try to just go to war against it. That includes my own emotional responses to situations. I get angry at getting angry. It's kind of a silly thing to say but in all seriousness I make war against my natural emotional responses to situations because they're just not Godly.

A key area of my life has always been my purity. It's something that I don't take lightly. I value my purity highly. I never want to be a vulgar or distasteful individual. No matter how funny people think it is. No matter how cool people think it is. I don't enjoy cursing. I don't enjoy saying or doing anything common. There are a variety of words (which I won't mention because I have friends who will enjoy using them over and over) that a simply hate that are commonly used. They aren't particularly nasty but they're common. I don't like them.

I don't enjoy toilet humor. It isn't funny. It makes me want to punch someone in the face. It's the most unintelligent way of joking. I don't enjoy scantly clad women. I find it repulsive. It's not that the women are unattractive or anything and I'm certainly not trying to tear down anyone, but wearing less clothing just tells me where your brain is and that's super unattractive. I REALLY don't enjoy perverse speech. I don't enjoy these things because they're a direct attack on my purity. They're a declaration of war against my identity. I like my identity. I like who God has made me to be. So I make war for my purity. I cast down, tear down, break down, burn down, ANYTHING that comes against my purity. I walk out of theaters when things go sour. I flip off the radio when something filthy comes on. I've left rooms, houses, parties, and friends because of the content. I've stopped listening to whoel genres of music because of their content.

It's not because I want to be some super spiritual guy, its cause I want to be real. How could I lie to myself and God? How could I accept something into my life that I know in every fiber of my being to be wrong?! I reject it. Like an infection to the body. I pump myself full of the world's anti- virus in the form of powerful worship and the deep seeded word of God.

I make war against attitudes. I don't like when I'm being negative or pissy. I don't think its ok. I don't agree with the way I treat my friends when I get angry. I love my friends. Dearly. I have friends that have taken far too much abuse from my backhanded sharp words. I won't accept it. I make war against it. I check my attitudes. I apologize for my er.

One of my most valued friends Ashley Cathey has been the victim more than once of my poor attitudes. I'm not ok with that. That's my sister. Someone I care about and love deeply and someone I only want to see succeed in life. How could I possibly treat her poorly? How could I speak perversely or vulgar around her? Doesn't she deserve better?

I've had a friend for years named Alex Maras who has stuck with me through thick and then. When I was the biggest jerk in the world, he was a faithful friend. When I went crazy and gave my life to Christ, despite his disagreements with some of my choices, he stuck with me. I have more than once cut him with my words in a way that no one else can. I've used our friendship as a tool to get what I want. Why would I not make war on something like that?

Depression and downheartedness has drained my life in the past years. It has pulled every fiber of goodness and joy from my life. Making even the most joyous occasions miserable. Tearing down everything I love and twisting it to hurt. I make war against that. I don't accept it. I demand joy in my life. Because I have an abundant supplier of the joy.

I make war against every situation and every emotion that tries to tear from me the promises and character of God. I don't just do it because I need to, but because others need me to. More importantly I want me to. They want me to. God WANTS me to. It's not just something I need. It's something I want.

I desperatly desire purity.
I desperatly desire kindness.
I desperatly desire patients.
I desperatly desire joy.
I desperately desire to live a life of Godliness.

So I make a desperate war against anything that tries to take them. Sometimes I lose. Sometimes I win. Sometimes I spend the night on my knees. But I fight. Because what I fight for is worth it. It's worth every single loss. It's worth the scars and the mistakes. Because the life I live is full of Christ and there is nothing more valuable on this planet and nothing more fulfilling than walking out His plan for your life. Real men make war. And maybe we're not much good at it. Maybe our Win/Loss ratio looks like a stacked deck. But we're fighting for what matters.