This is How I Fight My Battle
Whenever I hear or am singing this song I apply the words "this is how I fight my battles" to the action of singing in worship. This is truthful, but it is not the point of the song. If you listen to the other lyrics they point to Jesus Christ, "it may look like I'm surrounded, but I'm surrounded by you" "my victory's in Jesus name." The song itself points to the love and power of Christ our Lord in any battle that we are in. But what does it mean to fight our battles?
This year at the Jubilee Conference I received a lesson in what it looks like to fight battles.
Context: The main sessions at Jubilee are split up into these 4 main themes - which reflect the Biblical narrative - Creation, Fall, Redemption and Restoration. Friday night: Creation, Saturday morning: The Fall, Saturday night: Redemption, Sunday morning: Restoration. During the day on Saturday and before service on Sunday there are workshop sessions which pertain to various vocations and talk about the application of faith within our work in a secular world.
Setting: It's Saturday night and we've just gotten back to the convention center from dinner. On the way back I spoke to my campus minister and Sunday School teacher (one in the same person) about how he deals with concussion symptoms at such a large, loud, chaotic event. I had gotten hit the night before upon arrival at the conference by a friend -who is totally innocent in the matter, especially given that she had no idea I was kneeling beside her- and was symptomatic. During this conversation I decided that I would not attend the worship portion of the evening session so as to give my brain a break. I asked around to find someone to help locate an ice-pack I could use to potentially alleviate some of the pain and am now sitting at a table in a back room where a TV is set up to broadcast the evening service.
Story: Worship is happening in the main room which is located maybe 50 yards behind me and is filled with 4-6 thousand college students, campus ministers and community partners all worshipping the Lord to the song "This is How I Fight My Battles." I can hear their voices and the music through the two sets of walls that separated us as I followed the lyrics on the TV screen at the front of my room. There I was, sitting in a room, virtually alone -except for two individuals who were having a conversation behind me- listening to other people singing and fighting their battles with God. "What about me?" I thought, "they're all in there fighting their battles and I'm just here sitting with an ice-pack on my head, not doing anything but working on calming breathing techniques. This is how I fight my battles, this is how I fight my battles..." Then it dawned on me, this is how I'm fighting my battle! Everyone's battles look different and, at this juncture, my battle is against brain trauma and it's symptoms. This battle is fought in the stillness, in the quite diligence that it takes to nurse an injury like this back to health. The best part is, God is still with me! I don't have to be standing in a crowd of brothers and sisters, singing my heart out, to fight this battle. Because no matter where I am, where I've been, or what I'm doing, I'm surrounded by God and that is how I fight my battles.
Context: The main sessions at Jubilee are split up into these 4 main themes - which reflect the Biblical narrative - Creation, Fall, Redemption and Restoration. Friday night: Creation, Saturday morning: The Fall, Saturday night: Redemption, Sunday morning: Restoration. During the day on Saturday and before service on Sunday there are workshop sessions which pertain to various vocations and talk about the application of faith within our work in a secular world.
Setting: It's Saturday night and we've just gotten back to the convention center from dinner. On the way back I spoke to my campus minister and Sunday School teacher (one in the same person) about how he deals with concussion symptoms at such a large, loud, chaotic event. I had gotten hit the night before upon arrival at the conference by a friend -who is totally innocent in the matter, especially given that she had no idea I was kneeling beside her- and was symptomatic. During this conversation I decided that I would not attend the worship portion of the evening session so as to give my brain a break. I asked around to find someone to help locate an ice-pack I could use to potentially alleviate some of the pain and am now sitting at a table in a back room where a TV is set up to broadcast the evening service.
Story: Worship is happening in the main room which is located maybe 50 yards behind me and is filled with 4-6 thousand college students, campus ministers and community partners all worshipping the Lord to the song "This is How I Fight My Battles." I can hear their voices and the music through the two sets of walls that separated us as I followed the lyrics on the TV screen at the front of my room. There I was, sitting in a room, virtually alone -except for two individuals who were having a conversation behind me- listening to other people singing and fighting their battles with God. "What about me?" I thought, "they're all in there fighting their battles and I'm just here sitting with an ice-pack on my head, not doing anything but working on calming breathing techniques. This is how I fight my battles, this is how I fight my battles..." Then it dawned on me, this is how I'm fighting my battle! Everyone's battles look different and, at this juncture, my battle is against brain trauma and it's symptoms. This battle is fought in the stillness, in the quite diligence that it takes to nurse an injury like this back to health. The best part is, God is still with me! I don't have to be standing in a crowd of brothers and sisters, singing my heart out, to fight this battle. Because no matter where I am, where I've been, or what I'm doing, I'm surrounded by God and that is how I fight my battles.
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