A Battle to Fight

Men need a battle to fight we are wired that way. We need a cause that is larger than our own self-preservation. There is a reason for that: We were born into a world at war. We have an enemy that hates us and wants to destroy us. In Wild at Heart John Eldredge illustrates the “Warrior Heart” with the story of Civil war soldier Major Sullivan Ballou…

I have in my files a copy of letter written by Major Sullivan Ballou, a Union officer in the 2nd Rhode Island. He writes to his wife on the eve of the Battle of Bull Run, a battle he senses will be his last. He speaks tenderly to her of his undying love, of “the memories of blissful moments I have spent with you.” Ballou morns the thought that he must give up “the hope of future years, when, God willing we might still have lived and loved together, and seen our sons grown up to honorable manhood around us.” Yet in spite of his love the battle calls and he cannot turn from it. “I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter… how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution… Sarah, my love for you is deathless, it seems to bind me with mighty cables that nothing but Omnipotence could break” and yet a greater cause “comes over me like a strong wind and bears me on with all these chains to the battle field.”

Eldredge’s conclusion…
A man must have a battle to fight, a great mission to his life that involves and yet transcends even home and family. He must have a cause to which he is devoted even unto death, for this is written into the fabric of his being.

Excerpts from Wild at Heart by John Eldredge