Stand and fight!

Does evil exist? It’s a fairly simple question. I believe most of us would say yes. What do you do about it? That is a much more complex question. Centuries of human civilization have endured the struggle between good and evil. It seems unlikely that humanity will put an end to this struggle on its own. What do you do about it? Fight? Give-up? Wait until evil confronts you specifically? If the forces of Good and Evil exist then it is reasonable to believe those forces are actively at work. Perhaps you don’t believe in some external supernatural forces, fine then there are internal forces within each of us that dictate our thoughts, emotions and feelings of right and wrong. Regardless the struggle exists and yet many of us go through our day without taking a stand.

Christian author John Eldredge does an excellent job of outlining this ongoing battle of Good and Evil, if you get a chance to read some of his books I recommend you do so. Here are my thoughts, if evil exists, shouldn’t we take an active role in fighting it, in our own lives at a minimum?

I want to shift gears slightly and talk about State sponsored Evil! Sounds scary huh? An entire nation, run by an evil regime, with vast resources at its disposal, ready and willing to carry out its plans. (Begin Sarcasm) Good thing none of those have ever existed (End Sarcasm)

As an American one of the things I’m proud of is the goodness within the people of this country and willingness to stand up to evil….time after time. Has everything this country done been good or just? No. Has every war we’ve entered been for the right reasons? No. Are there global battles that we should not yet be involved in? Yes. Does America have the right to act unilaterally and independent of our allies if we see fit? Your damn right we do and sometimes it is imperative that we do so. The world, to include many of our allies, is to a point, jealous of American dominance. Many wish to see a more global government but I warn you this will only shackle our freedom and destroy the seed of goodness.

Wise council should be sought and our allies respected but we must make our own decisions. When governments such as Iran threaten to annihilate Israel or attack us for supporting them, the answer is not to back down. When rhetoric inside of a nation’s government has been for destruction of a race or people then we should not stay silent and be lured into a false sense of security because the initial attack is not a direct assault on us. Evil ignored is evil at work! We are being flanked!

Good loses to Evil when Good does nothing! But, I’m tired, we’re stretched to thin, we have our own problems! We do have to be smart about the battles we pick and when we choose to fight them, but we also can’t simply refuse to fight because we are exhausted or the odds are stacked against us. Was the ragtag band of American colonial militia a match for the British Empire…perhaps the strongest nation on the planet at that time? Was Normandy an easy gimme! Should David have been able to slay Goliath? The point is I’m sure none of those circumstances were ideal, I know for a fact General Washington had his back to the wall many, many times with an ill-equipped, beat down and broken army but the “Cause” made it worth fighting for and the greatest nation in the world was born.

We need only stand against evil; Providence will see us through!