Conflict is inevitable. Think about that statement for a bit. Maybe it sounds great. No conflict means no fighting and getting everything that we want right away. But what would it really be like to go through life without any sort of conflict? No opposition. No hurdles or speed bumps. No mountains to climb. Nothing that ever gets in our way. Every goal we have is achieved immediately. Every lesson is learned without thinking or struggling. Never needing to ‘give it our all’ or even really try for that matter. I’m not the biggest fan of conflict – truth be told I actually avoid conflict as often as I can. But a story – a life, even – without conflict just sounds boring.
Read the gospel story of Jesus sometime from beginning to end. Write down all of the instances of conflict that you find in the story. It doesn’t take long to find some instances of conflict. Jesus birth was full of conflict. A census, travel, no room in the inn, and a murderous King. And those are all right at the beginning! The conflicts in Jesus’ story go on and on and on. But so does the story.
Conflict can derail a story if it is avoided. But it adds to the story if it is faced. It doesn’t really matter if the story is a big one or a small one. Overcoming conflict makes for a great story.
Let me tell you the story of this basketball team I have the privilege of coaching this year.
They are 8th graders at Denver Christian and they are a great bunch of young men. They play hard, try everything I ask them to do, and have fun in the process. But as 8th graders, they Haden’s won a game. In fact, they didn’t win a game as 7th graders or 6th graders either. They were winless in their middle school careers. Until last Friday night, that is. They played a really tough game. Went up early but then gave up a bunch of points and were behind by quite a bit in the second half. But they didn’t quit. They chipped away at their deficit little by little in the second half until they went on a bit of a run and tied it up at the end of regulation. They scored the first points in overtime and never looked back. They won 35-30 for their first middle school win ever. It was a great game. They were more than excited at the end of it all. And my adrenaline was through the roof! Their win was even more special because of all of the conflict that they had gone through and all of the struggle to get to this point.
Now, will this game matter for them five or ten years from now? Who really knows. The point is, we face conflict all the time. And each time we have a choice to make. We can quit or side-step the conflict, or we can face it. Quitting is easy. Facing it is tough. But facing it leads to great stories and to us living the lives God intends for us to live. We weren’t created for boring, we were created to live good stories.
I don’t know what conflict you are facing in your stories. Maybe at work, maybe at school, maybe in your families or with your friends, maybe at church. But facing that conflict and reaching the goal is the point.
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Hebrews 12:1
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