Dead Men Don’t Struggle

“No man knows how bad he is till he has tried very hard to be good.  We never find out the strength of the evil impulse inside of us until we try to fight it.”  -- C.S. Lewis 

If you’ve ever been to Disney World, you may have been on a seafaring adventure called “Pirates of the Caribbean.”  Long before any of the popular movies emerged, this ride existed – taking its brave passengers up and down the stormy seas with swashbuckling pirates and excitement and danger at every turn.  

As the ride starts, an ominous, disembodied voice is heard echoing through the cavernous tunnel, saying “Dead men tell no tales….dead men tell no tales.”  The phrase itself has a storied and long history with various applications.  But when it pertains to pirates, the message is clear:  if you knock off any witnesses to your barbarism, you’ve just silenced their testimony.  It’s true, dead men don’t speak;  so of course dead men tell no tales.

Let me tell you what else dead men don’t do -  they don’t struggle.  I think this is obvious when we talk about our physical selves.  A lifeless being won’t put up a fight, attempt release from bondage, or scream for help.  They can’t.  

I think there is a spiritual lesson we can glean from the above.  Let me explain.  Better yet, let the Apostle Paul explain.  

I recently read Romans 7 at our Sunday morning Bible study.  There, the often-relatable Paul tells us that he was incredibly frustrated with this constant struggle he was facing.  He (like all of us) had a laundry list of stuff he just knew was bad — things he just knew he shouldn’t be doing, things he didn’t even want to do.  Yet, he kept on doing them.  Sound familiar?  Me too.  

And then, he continued, the good stuff he wanted to do, he just didn’t do -- even though he knew he should be doing these good things and in fact, they were things God asked him (and us) to do!

Friends, he is really mentally tortured by this battle as shown by his verbiage in versus 14-25.  He’s using phrases like “sold as a slave,”  conflict in his “inner being,” he’s “waging war” in his mind, and that these thoughts are making him a “prisoner.”  He finally throws his hands up and says “What a wretched man I am…”

As a Christian, we can feel his pain; this is our reality on a daily basis.  This emotional tug-of-war can lead to feelings of overwhelm and despair.  We’re told to put on the armor of God every day for a reason – because every day we are at war with our enemy, Satan.  His worm-like tendency to invade our thoughts, his attempt to destroy important relationships in our lives, his efforts to make us believe that maybe he doesn’t even exist (and therefore maybe God doesn’t either)….these are just a few of the things he’s throwing our way every day.  

I’ll be honest – when I read this section from Romans last Sunday I thought,  “Seriously, this is exhausting.  I get you, Paul. You took the words out of my mouth.”

Every single day,  I am getting lambasted with this mess of Satan’s, this mess I helped make too, this mental anguish, this guilt, this sorrow, this despair, this struggle.

But right there, in the middle of the discouragement, a thought occurred to me “Dead men don’t struggle” – and it immediately helped me reframe my way of thinking.  Instead of feeling fatigued and desperate, I felt oddly encouraged and emboldened.  

Here’s why - If you are spiritually dead (in other words, Christ is either nothing to you or beyond the periphery of your concern) you simply will not struggle in the way Paul is describing.  Your will is your will; you are the captain of your own ship, you make your own rules, and your might makes right.  Good or bad in the Lord’s eyes is completely irrelevant.  

However, when Christ is your mooring, your wishes will absolutely butt up against His at times.  Your idea of how to treat someone who just hurt you is contradictory to how Christ has asked you to treat him.  But you go ahead and treat the person poorly, following your own desires.  Your angry response to your spouse or child or schoolmate may feel justified but running it through Christ’s filter, you know it’s not.  Yet you open your mouth.  Watching that show, speaking that way, hanging with that crowd ( feel free to fill in whatever your “I-don’t-want-to-do-this-anymore-but-I-keep-doing-it” sin may be) just keeps happening.  

And then, like Paul rightfully laments about the other struggle we face –  the good I should be doing, I don’t do.  I should be keeping my mouth shut instead of saying what I said, but I didn’t.  I should’ve stopped the negative talk I heard, but I didn’t.  I wanted to help when I heard about this or that situation, but that person wasn’t always kind.  I find myself explaining away all the reasons I didn’t do the good I could’ve or should’ve done  -- it “wasn’t convenient,” or maybe “I was angry and they deserved the comment,” or  “what do I get out of this.”  Self-interest or indifference prevails.  

So I struggle.

But here’s the hope-filled reality:  If I’m spiritually struggling, I’m spiritually alive. 

Spiritually dead men don’t struggle.

And so I look at this struggle as a sign that I’m alive in Christ.  So yes, the battle continues.  But with this changed perspective, a new morning breaks on the blood-stained battlefield – the blood is Christ’s, spilled on Good Friday.  And the new morning breaking is that of Easter.  If that isn’t encouragement to keep fighting the good fight, I don’t know what is. 

I recently heard someone say,  “Why should the devil bother you, if you’re not bothering him.”  There’s something to that -- your spiritual struggle is a sign that you’re bothering the devil every time you hold fast to the Lord’s will. So he’s going to kick up his fight against you.

But keep on going! 

Instead of feeling defeat and discouragement by this never-quieted dichotomy, let’s ask like Paul did “Who will rescue me” and let’s get the same answer he did, “Thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord…” 

Let’s look at this always-raging battle as our poor (but beautiful in God’s sight because of Christ) attempt to do His will. Not to earn adoration from people, gain any credit with God, or any ounce of our salvation - - but rather out of love and thanks for all He has done for us.

You are spiritually alive.  You are struggling because you are alive in Christ and these battle scars we obtain from our earthly tumult are our daily reminder to focus on Christ’s own scars — scars from a victory that Christ secured for us on the cross. 

“We are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”  (Romans 8:37)

Onward Christian soldiers!