The gladiators with veiled faces

The Coliseum in days of emperors of Rome was always filled to the brim. People from every parts of Rome, from outside Rome, from far and near all want to be there to see duel of deaths for themselves. They all have one purpose; they wanted to see a fight of the gladiators or bet over one gladiator or the other. Almost all gladiators are usually under pressure to perform. They are preferred by some group of fans or the other …they don’t want to let their fans down. They can get carried away. To focus on the fight becomes a problem and since their life is at stake. They forget the fans temporarily. That is it. They knew that distraction could easily come from the crowd, the hailing; praises and the noise from the gallery could be killing in itself. So they shut themselves up in their own mind-world for the period of their fight…

Any gladiator that falls in the coliseum therefore must have attempted to be a part of the world of the fans…another world, apart from his own mind-world; he must have first look into the crowd on entering the stage. In the process, he must have been intimidated by the crowd, distracted by their voices and perplexed in the fight.

It is the self deceived, self oppressed and undisciplined one who sees the sidelines more than the object and the purpose of his fight…

Today life is like the coliseum and we are the gladiators…we must never be intimidated by multitudes around us nor of the suggestions from the sidelines…comprising of relatives and friends; we must never be carried away by the praise or contempt of the onlookers…they are all fickle! Temporal and subjected to changes…Just be focused on the author and the finisher of our faith.

Sometimes what we are fighting with is another gladiator, who is masked but unreal…, imaginary but challenging…at other times it is the devil himself.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers, against spiritual powers of darkness in high places…”

Somehow they are like a host of some invisible gladiators hurling at us all at once …some attacking our family, finances, fiancés and more. We are never free from fighting temptations and facing tribulations …against us are enemies within and without…Much of our invisible opponent consists of self, fear, past, mediocrity, et.al

The reward for fighting is not even a trophy…it is our own very life, our entire heart, our whole life, that we are fighting for .it is the faith that was delivered to the saints that we are contending for…it is our own salvation that we are working out with trembling and with fear .it is our entire life, our actual faith and eternity at large!

We either win or die, there is no option to winning…we either beat the spirit of negligence or end up being nobodies…

We are lucky to have a crowd of witness in the midst of these crowds on the gallery who are on our side. They are our own fans. Their cry to us is always thee same shout of encouragement, to hold on and hold out… not to give up the fight. The writer of Hebrews spoke about them. We are assured that we are surrounded by this great cloud of witness, so we are not alone…

We only need to have a confidence that we are on the right course. And we are fighting in the right battle, that we are not alone.

Where we are heading is the destination…it is the divine end and the destined destination of all dreams. What we are seeking is our freedom. It is the figurative freedom from failures and foes…it is a transition from a normal life of routines into an extraordinary life…we are called into the life that is lager than life itself.

We are the gladiators with veiled faces! Our dream actualization on earth is what uncovers our masks…our strength of character; patience and endurance are what shows we are the winners of the Duel of death indeed… Thus we are famous in heaven and on earth! Tried, tested and proven! Not because we are known by all, not because of the multitudes of our fans but because we are known by the one who is the ultimate emperor! The one who is and who is to come…the emperor that was never crowned by any man! The only wise Lord!