Our Struggle

     Our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh,

         but against the rulers, against the authorities,
         against the cosmic powers of this present darkness,
         against the spiritual forces of evil.
                   —Ephesians 6.12


When you fight the devil with the devil's weapons
you have joined his side.
Our struggle is not against violent people
but against violence.
Our struggle is not against people at all,
even the most evil ones,
but against the evil itself, that old ruler,
which clenches our hearts as well as theirs.
Our struggle is against systems and structures,
the powers that dehumanize people and diminish life,
the spiritual forces we've ingested,
the authorities we've knelt to.
We are rebelling against our own masters.
To vanquish the conquerors
we must vanquish our desire to conquer.
Before we are victorious we must become free.

Steve Garnass-Holmes, unfoldinglight.net, August 19, 2021