I am increasingly hearing the term "spiritual warfare" pop up in the modern vernacular. Some obviously subscribe to this framing, but others I see cringe or recoil at this, as it appears to evoke religiosity and superstition.

I would argue that intentional and exacting attention needs to be paid the WORDS, however. Spiritual warfare encompasses the Christian connotation people think of. But it also has a more general meaning. I would argue that ANY struggle that transcends establishing exclusively physical submission of an opponent is spiritual. When a UFC champion takes a match into late rounds to dissect a challenger, that becomes a war of the spirit. When a prisoner of war is subjected to psychological torture, the goal is conquest of the POW's spirit. The intent is to BREAK his or her spirit.

So the question is: are there or are there not forces at play in society that strive, whether intentionally or otherwise, to break our spirit?

#thinkstr