Austin City Life

The last 3 years has been a very trying time for my family and especially for my marriage. I tend to be more of a private person about family matters or marital issues so when I heard about fight clubs, I thought “Mmm…think I’ll pass on that.” But I began to catch on pretty early that what I was sharing and confessing in conversation in my City Group and on Sunday mornings was all really great stuff but completely different than what I was praying about in bed at night by myself.

 I wanted to go deeper with someone so, I started meeting with my fight club and really sharing and opening up about real, true, ugly junk going on in my life and in my marriage. I found acceptance and love in my fight club and I found myself being pointed to Christ in my mess. I’ve been asked several times “what about the gospel are you not believing right now?”

At times it has been difficult for me to see the good in some of the trials my family has endured.  In fact, I had pretty much convinced myself that God wasn’t really interested in what was good for me. What I wasn’t believing about the gospel is that in Romans 8:28 it says that God works all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. What I began to see after clinging to this verse is that God was indeed working things for good in my life through an insurmountable amount of grace and forgiveness that actually makes my story an incredible testimony. I think this came about through being encouraged by my fight club that God is for me and is always good.

My Fight Club girls are girls that, if I wake up one morning really struggling with something, I shoot them an email and within minutes, I have a response and know they are praying for me. Fight Club, to me, is not just about showing up with some surface sin you’ve had to muster up on the way to meet but it’s about confessing true sin and struggles and also, importantly, celebrating together your success in fighting those struggles. Fight Club, for me, has been a place of love, acceptance, accountability, prayer and a chance to point each other to the cross, which we all so desperately need. 

Guest Post by Melissa Navarro, Partner of Austin City Life