A Warrior Spirit

It seems like most people have something that they have to deal with most strongly than others. Some deal with financial difficulty, family inadequacies, major personality glitches, tragedy they have no control over... I am not an exception. I'd love to stand in front of people and say how I've got it all together and that the world is beautiful and smells like flowers (some days it is, if your in the right supermarket/bazaar aisle). But, I have a confession to make...

I love my life, I love serving Jesus, I love waking up in the morning to a cat that is very frustrated because she's on a diet... I am surrounded by great people, attend a phenomenal church, I have purpose, passion and persistence. Most of all, I serve a great God!

So what's the problem... every time the Lord is moving through me in a powerful way, I become VERY ill with random things. In college, I would get random fevers that would incapacitate me, I would pass out randomly, I had kidney stones as a 19 year old, hypo tension, hemophilia B, I had my gall bladder/appendix removed... all at the same time, after or right before the Lord used me in service to advance His kingdom in a powerful way. Currently, I'm battling a very painful abdominal infection and an infection in my jaw (and several other things)... random... YES! Physically and emotionally waring....YES! I believe with everything that I am.... that this is not an infliction from the Lord for my growth but a hindrance from the enemy to force me to withdrawal from service. I have come to this conclusion after much prayer...and mapping of these happenings in relation to Papa's move in my life.

If anyone has felt like giving in or giving up with 26 years of physical problems one right after the other... it'd be me. But I serve a good God, a righteous Father, a loving Papa, a redeemer, a healer, a counselor, a friend. And I serve persistently well or sick.

If you ever played king of the mountain growing up, you'd know that the goal of the game is to struggle your way up the hill fight person on the top. You win the right to be on top by throwing the other kid off the top and watch them topple down. The kid on top was always the big, scary looking kid, at least that's how it looks from the bottom of the mountain... and when you get to the top, the one who usually won was usually a larger or stronger kid. Growing up, this was one of the few games where I was the only girl willing to play the game. I knew it would hurt, I knew I'd get bit by bugs on the way up, I knew that I would bruise very badly, that I could break something and that the next morning wasn't going to be pretty. Why.. because I knew that their was nobility and courage that would go into the fight... but more importantly, if I won... what glory that would entail. So I would grit my teeth grab chunks of grass and climb one hand after the other, kept the enemy and the prize in sight and called up a warrior spirit. I never gave when when we played that game, no matter how bad I hurt...I just don't know when to quit... but there were definitely moments when I was wrestling with the three times my size kid and kept hoping that mom would just maybe yell for us to come in for the night... that I wouldn't surrender but get called home with my girl power pride in tack.

I feel like that so many days serving the Lord. I have the enemy and the prize insight, I'm climbing the mountain with a deep warrior spirit, tired legs, bloody knuckles, gritted teeth, one foot after the other.... piece by piece.... but this battle is different....

I'm not alone, I'm on a team. I'm on a team that doesn't accept defeat.... a team that as I'm climbing I can look over to my left and other members of the body of Christ are climbing next to me and as I'm too tired to go hirer... someone right behind me says... "Use my shoulder, get a better grasp"... all the while dodging the rocks from the overweight, slimy, scary, giant with the billy club and backward helmet above. Some of us take hits and draw his attention and it gives others on the other side enough time to go a little higher, get a little more confident and stronger.

Here's the kicker... when we, the remnant, get to the top... WE KNOW WHO WINS.

To get to the top, it's going to take purpose, passion and persistence as a team. To cover one another, to lift one another. We fight a common enemy, he has no new tricks, he's not even sneaky... he always gets us the same old way... thinking he can break us away from the mountain.

Let's fight the good fight for the Glory of the win and the family it brings honor to... and if Dad calls us in while we're in the prime of it... so be it.

Where's your warrior spirit today? Let's take the mountain...