Fighting for Me

Watching everything happening in the world with our military reminds me that we ought to pray regularly for the men and women who serve our country. I am thankful for every one of them.

But anytime somebody mentions the Marines, my mind goes back to a little incident from my early twenties when I learned an important lesson:

Sometimes the best way to win a fight is to hold on and let somebody stronger do the fighting.

I was young, unmarried and had recently started dating a young lady who had previously been engaged to a Marine. They had been split up for a while, so I asked her out, and we started dating.

Things were going pretty good until one day we were sitting around her mother's house when I heard a vehicle pull up outside.

Her mother looked out and said, "Oh no."

Now when somebody's mama looks out the window and says "Oh no," you know whatever just pulled into the driveway probably ain't delivering Publisher's Clearing House money.

It was the ex-boyfriend.

The Marine.

And judging by the way he got out of the vehicle, he hadn't driven over to invite me to supper.

She said, "I'll go talk to him."

That was fine with me. I have never been much on fighting anyway. I've always said I'll never lose a fair fight because it ain't fair to run a man down and hit him.

But while they were talking, he grabbed her.

There comes a time when you just got to do what you've got to do.

I walked outside and said something along the lines of, "If you want to talk, that's one thing, but there ain't gonna be no grabbing."

Well, that took the situation up another notch.

And suddenly reality was standing right there in front of me.

A big ol boy...and me.

I quickly realized this was probably not the time to fake it and imitate the Chuck Norris movies I'd watched.

My mind went from fighting to survival.

I figured the smartest thing I could do was get ahold of him, wrap him up, and hang on until somebody called the police or help arrived. My thinking was simple: if I stayed close enough to him, maybe he couldn't get enough room to beat me too bad.

That's not exactly a military strategy they teach at West Point, but it was the best plan I had.

Finally, when it became obvious there wasn't going to be any talking our way out of it, I just charged him, tackled him, and wrapped him up.

We hit the ground and started wallering around.

I was holding on to his head for dear life, trying to keep track of his hands, when suddenly I started feeling something against my side.

I thought, "Lord, he's figured out how to beat me up even while I'm holding him."

So I just squeezed tighter.

After a little while, I heard him say, "Get off! I have had enough."

I didn't move.

For one thing, I thought it might be a trick.

For another, I wasn't entirely sure I could still move.

Finally, I eased up and let him go.

When I looked at him, the back of his head was knotted up like he'd fallen down a flight of stairs and hit every step on the way down.

He got up, climbed into his car, and left.

And I stood there thinking...

I reckon I whipped a Marine.

For about thirty seconds, I felt ten feet tall.

Then I figured out what had actually happened.

That pounding I had been feeling in my side wasn't him punching me.

It was the young lady I was dating.

Apparently, while I had his head tied up and was holding on for survival, she had gotten herself a good angle by sticking her knee in my side and commenced to beating the tar out of the back of that poor ol' boys head.

I wasn't winning the fight.

I was just holding on while somebody else fought it for me.

And the best part of the whole story is that, as far as I know, that Marine drove away believing I whipped him.

I've never seen any reason to correct the record.

That crazy day reminds me of a serious spiritual truth.

There are battles in this life that are simply bigger than us.

We spend so much time trying to defend ourselves, fix everything, straighten everybody out, and fight battles we were never strong enough to win in the first place.

Sometimes God says:

"The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent." Exodus 14:14

Israel stood at the Red Sea with Pharaoh's army coming behind them and water in front of them. There wasn't a military strategy Moses could come up with to fix that situation.

God didn't tell them to become better fighters or better swimmers.

He told them to trust the One who was fighting for them.

Then there are other times when God fights our battles by putting people around us.

In Exodus 17, Israel was fighting Amalek. As long as Moses held up his hands, Israel prevailed. But Moses got tired.

So Aaron and Hur came alongside him.

"And Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side." Exodus 17:12

God gave the victory, but He used people to help hold Moses up.

That's worth remembering.

Sometimes God parts the Red Sea.

Sometimes He sends an Aaron or a Hur.

And apparently, sometimes He sends a fiery little lady with a good right hand.

The point is, you don't have to be big enough for every battle you face because your God is.

David understood that when he walked toward Goliath. He didn't say, "I'm bigger than you."

He said:

"For the battle is the LORD'S." 1 Samuel 17:47

That's the confidence of a believer.

Not, "I can handle this."

But, "God can."

Not, "I'm strong enough."

But, "He is."

Not, "I'll show them."

But, "I'll trust Him."

There are some battles where God tells us to move. There are some where He tells us to stand still. There are some where He sends people to stand beside us.

But in every one of them, the victory belongs to Him.

So when you're facing something bigger than you, don't spend all your strength trying to prove how tough you are.

Hold on to the Lord and let Him fight the battle.

And if He happens to send somebody alongside you to help, be thankful for them too.

Because sometimes you walk away from a battle thinking you did something...

only to discover you were just holding on while somebody stronger was doing the fighting.

"The LORD will fight for you." Exodus 14:14