This has happened to me a few times:
I set my alarm on my phone for my wake up time. I wake up before the alarm. I forget to cancel the alarm. The alarm goes off in the middle of a phone conversation. Oops — I guess it’s time to wake up.
I am aware of God calling me to wake up. Be aware. Pay attention. Ask this question every day; God, what do you want me to do? This morning the answer was “Meet me in our War Room. ______ needs you to go to war for her/him/them.”
You don’t have a War Room? Oh, my friend,… if you are a child of God, you need to get on that. I was inspired to create a war room after watching the movie War Room. That’s step one — watch the movie. Already saw it? Watch it again. When I re-watched it, I experienced a re-awakening of my soul. A fresh fire in the belly of the warrior within me that woke up to prepare for battle. There are people all around me that are under attack. I heard the call to get into the fight.
Know this — this call to arms is no ordinary battle cry. We need to prepare. We need to be sure our spiritual armour is in place. (Ephesians 6:10–18) We need to remember whose battle this is, and who claims the victory.
This sounds contradictory to me. Warriors awake! Get into the battle! But the battle isn’t ours to fight? The battle is the Lord’s? Can anyone else hear The Clash singing Should I Stay Or Should I Go inside their head?
Black lives matter to me. LGBTQ+ rights matter to me. The horrible injustices done to our indigenous people throughout history matter to me. We live in a time where these issues are highlighted in ways that can no longer be ignored. Every day I see social media posts to the effect of “all lives matter so that should be good enough for blacks and LGBTQ+ and Indigenous people.”
Matthew 18:12 clearly shows that a good shepherd will leave the flock that is safe in order to find the one sheep that is in danger. I’m one of the sheep that is safe. How arrogant would I have to be that I expect the shepherd to stay with me to keep me in comfort, and abandon the lost one to danger and probable death by predators? That’s not ok.
It’s not ok that my black and indigenous and LGBTQ+ brothers and sisters are not safe. It’s not ok that they are denied basic the human rights and legal protection and political representation that I enjoy simply because I am a white middle class female. I have said this for years, yet I have remained largely inactive. I have remained in the background, coasting safely, saying all the right things to the right people at the right times, without the risk of actually stepping up to the battle line. The same battle line that people I love and respect and admire step up to every day. That’s not ok either.
A fresh fire has been set ablaze in my soul. This is me. Stepping up to the the battle lines. Shouting as loud as I can.
I AM NOT SAFE UNTIL EVERYONE IS SAFE!
I AM NOT FREE UNTIL EVERYONE IS FREE!
I CAN’T BREATHE UNTIL EVERYONE CAN BREATHE!
I ENJOY NO BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS UNTIL EVERYONE ENJOYS ALL BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS!
My warrior is wide awake and she is suiting up for battle. What does that look like? It looks like whatever opportunity God gives me today. No more coasting in the safe zone. I may lose family. I will most certainly lose friends. I will take the risk.
Because Black Lives Matter to God, you matter to me. Because God loves the LGBTQ+ community, I love and value you. God is incensed over the injustices meted out on my indigenous siblings, and I feel righteous anger on your behalf. I will take every God-given opportunity to not just say so, but live it out. I will lock arms with you and not let go.
I am in my War Room. I will continue to fight on a spiritual plane through prayer and supplication to God.
Ask God to wake the sleeping warrior within you. Ask God to give you a vision for your War Room. If you’re not sure where to start, leave me a message in the comments. Let’s talk. Let’s suit up for battle. Let’s fight this Holy War together.
