So The Hunger Games: Mocking Jay Part 2 just came out and in the spirit of that I just recently finished watching the first three movies for the first time. I can hear you asking “How could I wait so long to watch them?”
Source: fotonin.com
To be honest I just did. No real reason but I did, and really, I’m glad I did. I’
m not sure I would have thought as much about them if I hadn’t watched them all together.
See fighting is human. Its just something we do. We start from a young age and it just grows and shifts all through our lives. Sometimes we fight for righteous things and other times we fight for stupid things. Sometimes we fight for love and other times we fight out of anger and hate. The world seems to thrive off of fights and it has for years (think the gladiator games if you are having trouble thinking of an example).
As I watched The Hunger Games, I thought about how we as Christians are in a battle everyday. A fight that goes on all the time; all around us. The more I watched and the more I considered the fight we Christians are in, the more I realized there are two major problems for may Christians.
1. We are too busy fighting people to fight the real enemy.
Too often we get caught up in the politics that seem to surround our fight. We start fighting the people on the opposing sides of issues. The problem is that the Bible makes it clear that we aren’t fighting a battle against other people. Its against the darkness and the powers that dwell within it. Paul tells us in Epheisans that
“…we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.” (6:12 NLT)
In this fight, out enemy isn’t the person who does wrong but the one who tempts, lies, misleads that person. Satan is waging war around us all the time and instead of fighting him and his methods we fight the pawns that he uses who have no idea they are even in a battle. You ought even consider them prisoners of war for they are nothing more than people held firmly in the enemies grip. So when you fight are you fighting the true enemy or just a person who has been mislead?
2. There isn’t any passion in our fight.
In any story with a good fight scene there is always a scene were the main character has a moment of passionate build up before going into battle. What is unique about the Hunger Games movies was that you saw your main character both with and without passion for the fight (especially in Mocking Jay Part 1). We see that without the passion there really is nothing there. We see nothing more than a depressed young woman when the passion is gone from the main character, but put that passion in her and we see a warrior ready to go into battle.
So where is the passion in our fight as Christians? Shouldn’t we have great passion to see the hold of the enemy lifted from those currently in his grip? Isn’t that something that should be driving us in our battles? Yet when we look around most Christians would rather cower in a church building than go into battle. This lack of passion becomes even sadder when you realize we have more reason than any other fighter in history to launch into battle. We already know the outcome: WE WIN! God has conquered the darkness already and the battles we fight are nothing more than minor, outlying scrimmages in an all ready finished war. Even more, we who are the weakest in His army have been asked by the Great Commander to go rescue those caught by the enemy and He reassures us saying “And be sure of this: I am with you always…” (Matt 28:20 NLT).
Paul truly understood what it was to be passionate about the fight knowing that the outcome of the fight had nothing to do with him.
“For I fully expect and hope that I will never be ashamed [of the Gospel], but that I will continue to be bold for Christ, as I have been in the past. And I trust that my life will bring honor to Christ, whether I live or die. For to me, living means living for Christ, and dying is even better.” (Philippians 1:20-21 NLT)
Source: ethosyoungadults.com
It was something that Paul looked forward to each day because he knew that he was either going to bring glory to Christ by being in the fight or he would be standing next to Christ in a victory over death. So when you start each day, are you ready to passionately fight the true enemy or do you pick little fights in an ever growing state apathy towards what really matters?
His Word - - - my journey 