How to Get Your Fight BackНамуна

RECOGNIZING THE SUFFERING OF OTHERS 

C.S. Lewis once spoke about the “inner ring”: a concept that sounds foreign but is all too familiar. The inner ring is an intangible element of how we approach and attach to one another through common interests, likes, and dislikes. If left unchecked, the inner ring can be dangerous as it leads to isolation and desolation between diverse groups. But if we are to get our fight back, we must recognize that we all deal with the same things, whether we are in each other’s inner rings or not. 

A wicked heart is not based on gender, race, economic status, or religion. In the face of those separations, the heart will still be wicked. If you find yourself against your fellow man because they disagree with you or because they aren’t like you, remember that wickedness has no barrier — it affects the persecutor and the persecuted alike. 

History tells each people group that their suffering was the worst. Black Americans relive 400 years of institutionalized racism daily. Native Americans shed tears at the thought of being extricated from their homeland by foreigners. Jews and their descendants had their DNA rewritten due to the trauma of the Holocaust. Every group has struggled, and every group has suffered. No one has any right to claim that their troubles are more titanic than the other.  

Have you ever languished over your own problems, thinking they are bigger than someone else’s? Have you ostracized someone for not thinking your problems were big enough? Have you cast someone out of your “inner ring”? We all have at some point. In our human experience, it is easier to feel like we are the only ones suffering than to recognize that others feel the same. 

Your world is not the only world. Your life is not the only life. That ought to encourage you. Though you may face a daunting challenge, you do not face it alone. If God has saved someone else with the exact issue across the world whom you have never met, He can do the same for you. Recognizing that is the first step toward getting your fight back, because an army encamped against the enemy shall prosper.