Take anything good, true, or beautiful upon this earth and ask yourself, “Can this be protected without a fight?”
- John Eldredge, The Way of the Wild Heart, p. 141
I keep coming back to this. I come back to it at a time when it seems my country is a warmonger. I come back to it when it seems that the mark of a mature man is a conciliatory style. I come back to it as I look down and see the scars on my wrists, on my feet, on my heart. I come back to it when I second guess what today might have been had I just gone along quietly. I come back to it when I get so tired and want it all to be over.
I'm sure there are many ways to fight well. I know that sometimes fighting means abstaining. Sometimes it means compromising. I know that there's sometimes a marked difference between fighting the battle and fighting the war. I know about sacrifice. I know about non-violence.
But sometimes I have to be reminded that not fighting is not an option.
