I Will Fight the Dragon

I attended a church service in my area, and I can, right now, make a goal to kneel in prayer every day for the rest of December, so today was pretty easy. I'm four for four. But that's not really what I want to blog about right now.

Driving over to a friend's house, I told my passengers that I wasn't going to try to get into the narrow driveway that was flanked by a brick and iron fence. Specifically, I said, "I'm not going to try the driveway." One of my passengers misheard me and asked "What was that about a dragon?" Another passenger, running with the miscommunication, said "He's not going to fight the dragon," and then added "Some paladin." A third passenger then said, "He's a peaceful paladin."

The reason I wanted to share that exchange was to state, for the record, that that isn't true. I am not a peaceful paladin. I will fight the dragon. In fact, I fight him almost every day.

In Revelations, and perhaps a few other parts of scripture, the term "the dragon" is used to refer to Lucifer, who became Satan, the devil. At times, I would prefer for there not to be a connection between dragons and Satan, because dragons are awesome and I like them, and Satan is not awesome and I don't like him. In fact, I often wish he would go to hell and stay there.

But I don't have to merely wish that he would leave me alone; I can make him leave. I can fight his influence and keep him out of my mind. I may not be able to completely eliminate all temptations from my mind, and even if I could, he would always come back with new ones, but though my adversary is relentless, I can fight him, and I can keep fighting him. I can't slay the dragon, but I can keep him at bay. At the very least, I can certainly try.

So that's what I'm going to do. I'm going to try to keep Satan from influencing my decisions. I'm going to fight the dragon as often as he comes at me. And if I keep fighting him, I am guaranteed to beat him. Because I am a Paladin, I will fight the dragon, and moreover, I am going to win.