I am a warrior, created in the image of God, the only true Ultimate Fighter. It is my desire in life to follow the path He has laid out for me. It is not an easy path, but it is the best path, and, for me, it is the only path that allows me to be me—ME—in the fullest sense of the word. It is the path with heart, and it is the path on which I can discover and recover my own heart…my male heart…that which was entrusted to me at my birth. My heart is my birthright, and I must do everything within my power to strengthen and build it up so that it can be devoted fully, in its purest sense, to myself, to my loved-ones, to God, and to the mission God has given me to fulfill in life.
The Dare...
Life is dangerous. I can either face that danger head on, or I can hide my head in the sand and pretend it doesn’t exist. As far as my own personal safety is concerned, it really matters not which option I choose because, in the final analysis, both options will, more than likely, result in my sustaining injuries—sometimes, life-threatening injuries. Let me ask you a question: Which would you prefer? To stumble through life, hiding from and living in fear of any and every thing that could possibly harm you? Or, would you prefer instead to train yourself to be able to recognize your enemy, stare him down, and then throw the full force of your being into warring against him for the sake of yourself, your loved-ones, God, and your mission? Choose you this day, which path you will take. It is my prayer that you will choose the latter path…the warrior’s path…the path with heart. I cannot make the choice for you. You must choose it for yourself, just as every warrior has done so since the beginning of time. The dare I place before you today is the dare to make the choice to be a warrior every second of every day for the rest of your life. Do you have what it takes within you? Do you have what it takes to be an ultimate fighter, forged in the life-giving image of the Ultimate Fighter of all time? I believe you do. Dare to believe it, too. Dare to believe in yourself and in the God Who made you, this God Who moves you and is moved by you, this God Who loves you more than you could ever think or even imagine, and this God Who’s placed His own warring Spirit within you. Dare to allow the warrior within you to rise up and take his or her honored place at the forefront of your life.
Practice...
A warrior’s life consists principally of two things: (1) combat; and (2) the preparation for combat. Training is the warrior’s constant companion. Training flows into everything he does. A warrior practices everything. He practices how he eats, how he sleeps, how he walks, how he talks to others, how he does his homework, how he washes the dishes, how he throws a left jab at an opponent’s jaw, how he thrusts a spinning back kick into an opponent’s stomach, and how he executes a hip-roll to slam an opponent into the ground. There is an old saying, which has become a personal slogan in my life, and here it is: “The more thou sweatest in training, the less thou bleedest in battle.” Train, my friends, and practice—practice everything…practice all the time…even when your distracted, discouraged, tired, or just don’t feel like it. The warrior’s life is a training ground. It can become your training ground as well…your training ground for discovering, recovering, developing, strengthening, protecting, and, ultimately, giving away your heart. As a warrior, you must commit to training as a way of life. Life is the real deal. Live it. Work at it. Practice it. And let life express itself through you in whatever forms it might take.
To Fight or Not to Fight: Listening to Your Fear...
Contrary to popular belief, a warrior is not fearless. In fact, a warrior is afraid every time he confronts danger. A warrior is, though, courageous. Even though he feels and listens to his fear, he pushes through it, draws upon his training (his life of continuous practice), and confronts whatever it might be that is posing a threat to him or to those he loves. Pushing beyond his fear, he courageously moves into action and enthusiastically crosses the threshold of safety into the lion’s den. Listen to your fear. It can teach you a great deal about yourself and about the threatening nature of a particular situation. Listen to what’s going on inside you. This will help you decide when to fight and when not to.
To Fight or Not to Fight: Remembering that Which Matters Most...
What matters most to you in your life? Take some time to think deeply about this question. Your answers will help you decide when to fight and when not to.
To Fight or Not to Fight: A Little Guidance...
Everyone needs guidance. Everyone needs a coach. Mohammad Ali had a coach. Bruce Lee had many coaches. I have (and have had) many coaches. Jesus had many coaches.
Here’s a little guidance from me (a coach of sorts) that may help you in deciding when it’s right for you to fight and, perhaps, when it’s not. Fighting is not about having your way physically with another person (or with a group of people) so that you can obtain something you want but don’t have. That’s not fighting; that’s just being a moral, spiritual, or physical bully, a thief, a murderer, or a rapist. Fighting is about protecting that which you hold most dear: (1) your physical safety; (2) your ability and freedom to be and express who you are genuinely (e.g., your dignity as a person); (3) the physical safety and dignity of those you love; and (4) the physical safety and dignity of those around you (whether you know them or not). If any of the above are threatened, you have every right (and, in many instances, the obligation) to stand up and fight. Part of your purpose in life may well be to do just that.
As I wrote above, everyone needs a little guidance. Some need it more than others. Warriors, especially warriors-in-training (like myself), often need the most guidance. The reason being is that sometimes the very lives of those within the sphere of a warrior’s influence and protection may depend upon that warrior’s success. If he wins, they live; if he loses, they die. History is replete with many such examples of this relationship. If you want to be able to come through when it’s asked—or, at times, demanded—of or from you, you’re going to need to train, and you’re going to need to avail yourself of and submit to the best training available to you. Who in your life is giving you guidance? Are you guidable? There’s an old saying, “When the student is ready, the master will appear.” Who’s your master? Mine is Jesus Christ. Is He yours? As a warrior-in-training, I also avail myself of many of God’s under-masters…those who’ve gone on before me and pointed out the way…those who are a little older than I and who’ve been around the block a few times…those who can help me grow in skill to a much greater degree than I ever could if I were left only to my own devices. Jesus still has disciples. Are you one of them? Are you a disciple of anyone? Humble yourself, and submit to the leadership and guidance of another. Devote your life to soaking up as much as you can from those around you. May everyone—and everything—be your teacher.
Jesus, the Bearded Woman...
Jesus was not mild-mannered during His life on earth. He still isn't. While He may be a perfect gentleman, He is also the most dangerous being anyone or anything could ever encounter. Jesus was and is God-incarnate…God-with-Us. He is the Ultimate Fighter, and He loves the wild and dangerous places in life. As the scriptures indicate, through Christ all things were made and brought into being: snowflakes, hurricanes, kittens, cobras, grass hoppers, deadly spiders, aloe, poison ivy, you, and me. The scriptures also indicate that in Him we live and move and have our very being. This Jesus, the absolute and undisputed Ultimate Fighter of all time, lives inside you and animates every aspect of your being as a person. Jesus was and is drawn to the dangerous. In His life on earth, He picked fights with community leaders, He overturned furniture, and (at least once) He used a whip—that He, Himself, fashioned—to drive a crowd and their animals from the temple in Jerusalem. This same Jesus, the very one who did all these things, lives inside you. In my opinion, I think Jesus was a lot more like Indiana Jones than most of us were taught in Sunday School. I don’t want to be overly dramatic here, but I also don’t want to mince my words. Jesus was and is a warrior. He understands the necessities of war and combat. But, like any true warrior, His strength was, when He lived on earth, under the complete and total influence of the Holy Spirit. His strength was channeled, much like high-pressure water in a fire hose. Be like Jesus. Be like the water in a fire hose…powerful, channeled, and devastating to that which seeks to steal, kill, or destroy. Jesus, the bearded woman? Not in my mind, but you need to decide that for yourself.
Doing Unto Others; Turning the Other Cheek...
“But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. Give to everyone who asks, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Luke 6: 27-31 (NIV)
The above passage is, in my mind, the definitive standard for the kind of person a warrior trains to be. To love one’s enemies, to give freely, to do unto others, to turn the other cheek…these are the attributes and endowments of the trained warrior. And they are qualities that can only be discovered, recovered, and strengthened along the warrior’s path. They are the fruit of the Holy Spirit’s work in the regenerated and regenerating heart of the warrior.
I want to be perfectly clear on something that many, I feel—including myself, have misunderstood about the whole concept of turning one’s cheek. First of all, one cannot turn one’s cheek until one has first developed one. By the development of one’s cheek, I mean the recognition and development of one’s own personal dignity, freedom, humanity, and mission as a child and servant of God. Secondly, in the passage above, I believe that the “strike (or slap),” to which Jesus refers, speaks more to that of an insulting gesture than to that of a physical assault. As warriors, we train so that the physical—and often “threatening”—gestures of others more and more take on the appearance of insults rather than that of physical assaults. This is part of the purpose of our training. Because it’s so grueling, the threats of others no longer seem like much of anything at all. There’s an old saying (and, again, a personal slogan of mine), “If, in your training, you’re not pushing yourself to the point of risking death, you’re probably just going through the motions.” Train so that your confrontations with the real deals in life become easier than slogging through another day of your own personal training regimen.
I’d like to propose an analogy to illustrate a little of what I’m trying to drive at here. If someone had a small stone in his hand and was taunting you with it and you had nothing at your disposal to help you defend yourself, would you consider that to be a fairly threatening situation? I would. Okay…What if you, too, had a stone in your hand? Would the situation seem a little less threatening? Perhaps. How’bout if you also had with you a wrist-rocket sling shot that you knew how to use well? If such were the case, I would imagine that the situation would no longer feel nearly as threatening as the original scenario I painted above. That is what I mean when I say that a warrior trains to keep threats to a minimum. His training as a warrior enables him to deescalate threatening situations. To a warrior, that which was threatening yesterday no longer seems as threatening today. That’s the path we’re on. It’s the path that leads ultimately to the ability to love one’s enemy and to truly turn one’s cheek in the face of persecution for your faith. It also allows the command, “Do unto others as they would have you do unto them,” to, at times, morph into a more personal slogan, such as, “You may do unto me that which causes you no harm.” Think about those words for a moment. “You may do unto me that which causes you no harm.” It has been a long time since I, personally, have been in a true physical fight with an attacker. But, had I not trained as a warrior all these years, it is quite possible that I would not be breathing right now or writing these words. The above slogan is now a part of my own consciousness as a warrior; I meditate on it many times throughout the day. One way I can interpret this slogan down to a real world scenario is as follows: Let’s say that I’m in downtown Durham, NC, it’s late at night, and a man I do not know approaches me on a sidewalk. As the man approaches, I think to myself and project (to the man coming toward me) the following thoughts/feelings: “Greetings, my friend. I wish you well in life. Please feel free to pass by unhindered, but do not engage me aggressively. For, if you do, I will be compelled to defend myself. And, while I may be harmed in the exchange, I have no doubt that such a situation will, at best, land you in the hospital. If you try to harm me, you will, no doubt, be harmed yourself.” In the above, I am referring to physical injury, but I don’t think it should stop there. When someone hurts you or me intentionally, the dignity of such a one dies piece by piece. I do not wish such a thing on anyone. But...there may be a time in your life as a follower of Christ when you will be brought to your knees because of your life and faith in Christ. It will be in those moments—those life-defining moments—that we will need to look to (and upon) Jesus, the undisputed Ultimate Fighter of all time, and identify with His own obedient act of allowing His Life to be taken from Him. The Spirit of Jesus in you will guide you in those moments...if you will only choose to submit to Him.
I’m With You...
I believe in you, my friend. You have what it takes. Choose today, and walk the path with me. Stand with me, will you? Be who you are, and be the warrior that resides within you. You have been raised for such a time as this. God bless you. Your friend, Dave.
Note: In addition to the insights of Holy Scripture and many of my martial arts mentors for the last thirty years, I am particularly indebted to the writings of John Eldridge and Richard Marcinko in shaping some of my thinking in this post.
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