Hi, all. Just a thought to help start your weekend. 

I spent the majority of my growing-up years in Corinth, Mississippi. Corinth is a southern town in a southern state with a very southern background and history. Every aspect of southern life, as seen in our history books, could have been found in Corinth at some point in time. One of many things that Corinth is famous for is its Civil War background.

The Battle of Corinth, fought Oct. 3 and 4, 1862, included a defense by the Confederates of a particular hill area in the western portion of the city, known as Fort (or Battery) Robinett (sometimes also spelled Robinette). We lived on Confederate Street, just about three blocks from what remained of Fort Robinett. My brother and I spent many a day climbing and playing on and rolling down what we later in life learned to be the earthenwork walls of the fort.

There was no park as such. There were a few markers scattered on those acres, but later as other lands and funding were acquired, a Civil War Interpretive Center was built. So there is now a museum on the hill where we once played. I dug up bullets and minie balls in our yard never really understanding that we lived and played right where so many had given their lives. Regardless of anyone’s views on the reasons for the Civil War, we must all agree that entirely too many lives were lost. Too much blood was shed. And all the markers, memorials, and museums in this world will never make up for that. However, it cannot be ignored.

We fight battles in life. Some are more profound than others. And some battles will leave everlasting scars. Some of those scars will forever be visible to those who come later and think back to their memories of us. Our battles, our wars, our scars, and even our souvenirs of such should be a reminder to those who will soon travel here that we may have struggled and we may have even lost a battle or two, but, praise God, we as His people will be victorious in the overall war of this life!

I doubt very seriously that any young man who went into that battle in West Corinth so many years ago was concerned about what would or wouldn’t be built on that hill. But then again, most observers of Jesus’s death on Calvary’s hill had no thought to what was coming next either.

Battles of the past or battles you may face today and tomorrow don’t have to define who we are. They’re simply a part of who we will become. More like Jesus, one day at a time.

Just a thought.

’Til later.

Rev. Brad Campbell, mastah.pastah@yahoo.com.