Fighting For

by Jessica Synan

Have you ever felt like you’re just fighting, like you’re swinging your fists blindly in the dark at some monster you can’t really see? That’s what it’s like to be fighting against. Most of the people you know are fighting against. They’re not sure what exactly they’re fighting, but it’s out there somewhere. They’re just fighting because they don’t know what else to do.

Sometimes we do the same thing with our families. We know that there are some things beyond our control, so we start fighting. We fight because we are dissatisfied with our lives, our relationships, and ultimately because we are not really happy with ourselves. However, no matter how hard we fight against, we will never fix all those things that are wrong with our lives.

In the movie Cinderella Man, Russell Crowe plays Jimmy Braddock, a dogged Irish boxer during the Great Depression. When he breaks his hand and loses his ability to fight, his family doesn’t have enough money to heat their house or pay for food. But his old manager gets him a fight when another fighter backed out, and somehow he wins. And he keeps winning fights that he’s supposed to lose.

When reporters ask Braddock how he’s able to win fights, when in the past he had been just a mediocre fighter at best, he replied, “This time around, I know what I’m fighting for.”

You see, before, he had just been fighting against other fighters. But he had found something greater to fight for—his family’s future and freedom.

All of us fight against a lot of things, but what are fighting for? Is it our families and God’s will for our relationships?

Are you willing to commit to start fighting for something greater than yourself? Are you willing to give up those battles you’re fighting because you don’t know what else to do? Start fighting for things that really matter, and you’ll be surprised at how much God will do.