Philo of Alexandria once said, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.” It’s true. As sure as we carry our worlds with us in our guts, we carry the battle that is unique and synonymous to each one of us. A lesser known person (who I don’t know) once said, “Stuff happens,” which is a more shallow, ignorant, and unphilosophical way of saying the same thing, but digging deeper, this “stuff” is more than just “stuff.” It’s the down and the dirty, the grime of life, the finishing lasts, and the falling shorts. It’s the fears and the unknowns, knocking mercilessly at your door. It’s a battle field where I’ve fallen numerous times, and through the mortar smells, bloody heart, and crushed ego, reaches a hand gruff, yet holy, and strong, but gentle. Pulling my lifeless body from the ashes, He, with a mere touch, ignites my heart again with strength. Whose hand is this? It’s Jesus Christ. OK, maybe it doesn’t look like Jesus to you. Maybe it’s not a James Caviezel, or a pasty, pale rendition of a narrow shouldered Jesus. Maybe it’s a child’s hand, or a stranger, a family member, a friend, or even (dare I say?) an enemy. It’s a swooping down to save your day with a kind word, or even a friendly face.
“Be kind…”
That’s right. It’s not just you. It’s the next man and/or woman as well. We face the same war. It’s called being human, or spiritually, it’s called our “flesh.” It’s not our flesh in the sense of the scar that you got when you were 12 and fell on a rock, but rather, it’s the scar of knowing pain as well as pleasure, defeat as well as victory, and sorrow as well as joy.
“…for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.”
Paul (the killer of Christian, turned Christian missionary) once proclaimed the battle when he said, “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to dothis I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it…What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to Godthrough Jesus Christ our Lord!”
There is salvation in the battle.
Click here to read more of what I mean.
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.”