Contending

 

In the clearing stands a boxer

And a fighter by his trade

And he carries the reminders

Of every glove that layed him down

Or cut him till he cried out

In his anger and his shame

“I am leaving, I am leaving”

But the fighter still remains    -The Boxer, Simon & Garfunkel*

 

Have you ever been in that place?

Have you ever fought for years, maybe decades, for something? We all have dreams and visions. We have all been gifted with a calling, a passion for something that will put demands on our time, our ambitions and our priorities. It will ultimately shape our destiny. And the world will never be kind. It will never be supportive. You will often feel that you and your dreams are not welcome here.

And we come to that place in the clearing.

And there is a choice before us.

You may have faced setback after setback. You may feel that all you’ve known is failure. It may be that every time it looks like things might start coming together, they fall apart. Another dead-end, yet another disaster, and now what? We carry the reminders, don’t we? And just in case we forget for a moment, we have an adversary who’s all to happy bring it all back to our minds. But there is a choice. We are contenders. We are fighters by our trade, and this has been our training. How long it will take, and where it will take us, only God knows. But we do know this; God loves us and it is in His hands to bring us to that place where faith is complete. If we are living according to His will, then we can be assured that our dreams are in accordance with that will.

We could look back and say ”I am leaving, I am leaving”, or we can be the contenders that God created us to be, and press on even if it takes another 20 years to see our dreams fulfilled.

But the fighter still remains.

 

*Thanks to Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, who will probably never get wind of this post, but if, by some incalculable chance, they do, My hope is that they won’t mind me quoting their lyrics.