“Fight the power.” “Hell no, we won’t go.” “No justice. No peace.” “Freedom now.” “We shall overcome.” Mantras of my people for over 400 years. And for a time, they were my mantras too. I stood in solidarity with my people against police brutality. I wrote about the impact of slavery and racism on our Black men and our families. I analyzed liberation theology and the critical race theory. I researched what a movement back to Africa would entail. I fought to break through “glass ceilings.” I fought to eradicate poverty. I fought to change laws and legislation. I fought the system, the man, and everything and everybody who sought to keep my people down. 

My fight was fueled by my quest for justice, my quest to be seen and heard, and my quest to shed my hurt and anger. I was just a swingin’ and swingin’ and swingin’. But after a while, all my swingin’ felt like shadow boxing. I was fighting, but I’d lost sight of who I was fighting and what I was fighting for: “the man” – was this all men, white men, or figuratively all white people? Or was I fighting the “the system” – was I fighting our community and local governments, or was I fighting the federal government? Was I fighting to add more laws and legislation? Or is the fight against the criminal justice system? Or the welfare system? Or am I fighting the nightmare of my history from which I am trying to awake (James Joyce)?  

I’ve realized that before we can win the battle against injustice, we must first know ourselves, and that’s what I sought to understand through my study of Africa and the descendants of Africa (Discovering My Biblical African Roots Bible Series). I’ve also come to understand that to engage in combat requires that we know the enemy against whom this battle is waged. Sun Tzu, a Chinese general, military strategist and author of The Art of War, said, “If you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.” 

Fighting the wrong enemy in the wrong way leads to a space where the very core of you can no longer breathe. And I, for one, was tired and out of breath. And God, in His infinite wisdom, showed me that perhaps my exhaustion and inability to breathe has more to do with me fighting the wrong enemy than it does with the act of fighting itself. 

Some years ago, I participated in group therapy, a retreat of sorts. And one of the activities was designed to help us let go of our anger and ultimately forgive. We were asked to bring a picture of a person or persons who had hurt us. The pictures were tacked to a wall, we were given darts, and we were directed to aim away. And with every dart, my anger, hurt, and pain were unleashed. I began to feel vindicated as the picture of my tormentor became distorted and disfigured as it shred under the blows of my darts. As we sat down with tears running down our faces, the facilitator began removing our shredded pictures until the image that remained was an image of a shredded Jesus. The gasps were audible. I would never, ever have thrown darts at my Jesus! But the facilitator’s point, and a point that would soon come to remember, is that we are all image-bearers (Genesis 1:27). Not just those who do good or live holy, but every man and woman created. So when I fight “man” or “woman,” I’m fighting God’s created and loved. 

Please hear me out. Targeting our true enemy does not diminish our hurt, pain, or experiences. Nor does it excuse those who have inflicted our pain. And it doesn’t mean that we stop fighting. But it does help us to understand that our real battle is not with people but against principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness, and the spiritual hosts of wickedness (Ephesians 6:12). According to Priscilla Shirer, “Everything that occurs in the visible, physical world is directly connected to the wrestling match being waged in the invisible, spiritual world. The effects of the war in the unseen world reveal themselves in our strained and damaged relationships, emotional instability, mental fatigue, physical exhaustion and many other areas of life. Many of us feel pinned down by anger, unforgiveness, pride, comparisons, insecurity, discord, fear, etc. But the overarching, primary nemesis behind all these outcomes is the Devil himself.”

When we look at our enemy in non-spiritual terms, we’re most likely to seek non-spiritual solutions to ease our pain or “combat” our enemy. However, when we understand that this battle is much bigger than us and that the mastermind of our oppression, our trials, and our pain is satan, whose primary goal of his kingdom is to stand between our Savior and us and to keep us from glorifying God and fulfilling our purpose. He wants us to forget that we indeed have a Savior, who not only cares about us, but Who is powerful, mighty, and has already defeated our foe (Hebrews 2:14, Romans 16:20). 

And not only that, but God has also provided us with the game plan for how we can overcome our enemy. We have not been left defenseless. So be encouraged and give God the glory, knowing that our enemy is an already-defeated foe (Revelation 20:10).