Gird your loins, fellow believers. Sharpen your spears. Lace your sandals. There are vineyards to trample and breastplates to don. Zion awaits, but only if we march apace. There are culture wars, and rumors of culture wars.

The world is full of shadows, some of them treacherous and fearful. We have a mayor in Houston trying to squash the church. The Supreme Court continues to vex on homosexual marriage. Ebola is still Ebola. And, perhaps worst, we still live in a land in which Wes Anderson has failed to win an Academy Award.

In the face of such onslaughts, I find myself spent.

Why am I flagging? It could be that I am working on an iota of sleep. While students generally assume, I think, that professors spend their time lounging in leather chairs while clad in tweed from head to toe, our lives are not quite that luxurious. The painful reality is that most of our lounging takes place while wearing navy blazers with shiny buttons.

I am spent because I am tired of fighting my  battle against culture wars. You see, there are those who fight culture wars and there are those who fight against those who wish to fight them. Count me, truly, in the latter camp. I trust that fully clarifies things.

I cannot conceive of my Christian life without something against which to fight. I fought the law. It won. I fought the man. He won. I tried to fight for my right to party. I fought the moonlight. I fought the power. I learned the first two rules of Fight Club. Yes, I pretty much lost all of those fights.

I prefer to tend my garden. Not in a literal sense, mind you, because people who garden are insane, but in a more figurative manner. I would like to check out, declare a truce, and just sit and read.

I tire of people who are casting about for the latest outrage, for they nourish the things that offend them. They enjoy the battle. They are walking conflicts, keeping all possible resolutions at arm’s length. I am not one of those people. I try to counter them. I offer perspective. I specialize in the long view.

“Most important election in American history?” they might ask.

“Well, there was that one in 1860 that, you know, eventually lead to the bloodiest war in American history.”

“Isn’t he the worst president ever?”

“Well, there was the one who resigned after he used parts of the federal government to forestall investigations by other parts, undermined his political opponents through illegal activity, and who fired the person who refused to fire the person who was investigating the White House.”

I have, to a degree, observed and studied the so-called culture wars in America. I came of age at the launch of the Moral Majority. I watched the Christian Coalition rise and fall. I saw Pat Buchanan declare the culture war in 1992. To some degree, we have been losing cultural space ever since.

Mind you, I am not criticizing those who were, or are, in the arena. We need people in the courts, on the Hill, and inside executive agencies. I earnestly seek to prepare students for those lives. We need people to run campaigns and run for office. We need to be out there with our point of view and we, as believers, must be vigilant as we protect our political and legal interests. Please, do not misunderstand.

I am concerned that our consistent call to arms warps our perspective. When we battle, we define enemies. We tend to scowl and snarl. We are, as Christians, absent of the “happy warrior” gene that seeks joy, battles through persuasion, and never lets anything get in the way of a smile.

I am not suggesting we withdraw–far from it. But we cannot let the “fight” prevent us from living a good life. We must love. We must laugh. We must dance (but only in a holy and approved manner). We must sing. We must worship and minister.

So, I  am still at war with the culture wars, not because I wish to lay down my arms, but because my arms do not define me.

There are no shadows in pitch black. There is only inky darkness. Shadows, even when they threaten to surround us, require light to exist. The Light, more than the shadows, should shape us. When we live in culture wars, we give in to the shadows, too often at the expense of the Light of the World, for it is in him that we find our eternal hope and joy.