Life is not a battle.

I am not in the middle of a battle.

That felt good to write, to say out loud as I wrote it.

For years I have been told that life is a battle, especially in the contexts of spirituality.  “Everyday is a battle.  Are going to fight for God or for the devil?”  Statements like that (Which I just made up for the sake of my argument) have made challenging times seem more challenging.  When life gets tough I typically think to myself, “well, you’re losing this one” and I immediately feel worse. 

What if life wasn’t a battle to be won or lost?  What if life was just life, a series of days and times and events and laughs and tears and love and hate and life?  As Christians, we know that death is not the end.  We subscribe to the belief that there is an after-life and we will either spend eternity in heaven or hell.  So, if death is not the end, if death is not considered a loss, why do we think our lives have to be such a struggle to win?  This is not something about prosperity; I’m not talking about that.  Maybe this is more for emotional things, like depression or loneliness or something.

You wake up and are immediately immersed in a fight, a fight for the day, a fight for your life.  Every decision you make, every thought you have, every word that comes out of your mouth is another chance to win or lose.  It's stressful, you have to constantly be ready to defend your position, to fight for your victory everyday of your life, there is never a moment of rest or peace.  That doesn't sound like a life I want to live.

Donald Miller wrote in a book about a lecture he went to.  The man speaking said that more people are dying from non-terminal cancer's each year in the United States than need to be.  The reason? Their mentality towards their illness.  The popular belief is that when the “C” word is given as diagnosis that you are automatically thrown into the midst of an epic battle between yourself and cancer.  The patient believes they have to fight to survive and because of this perceived mentality of a battle that needs to be won or lost, there are people who give up because they don’t think they can win the battle, they don’t think they have the strength to fight.  In most of these cases, the cancer was not terminal, the patient had very little to zero risk of dying but their emotional state propelled their bodies into a place of immediately raising the white flag in defeat and so they succumbed to the perception of their current state.

I just wonder if the same is true in life.  Am I succumbing to the perception I have?  Sometimes I wake up and I can’t wait to take on the day; I have my to-do lists made, I have my schedule set, I have the coffee maker ready to go, I am going to dominate life on that day.  Then there are days I don’t want to get out of bed till Noon and I beat myself up because of it, I immediately check out and say “You lost today, buddy.”  From my perception of life being a series of battles to win or lose, I am taking on negative perceptions to life and I can be sure to lose whatever perceived battle I think I am in.

I say, get the entire mentality of life being a battle out of your head.  Life is life and there are good days and there are bad days but life is not a battle and you don’t have to fight.  All you have to do is live.  Here’s hoping you live a life of joy and happiness.

- Cheers.