Do you all remember the TV series CHiPs?
It aired in the late 70s and early 80s and followed the lives of Frank Poncherello (“Ponch”) and Jon Baker, two California Highway Patrol motorcycle cops. As a young kid, I thought the show was fantastic. Even the opening theme song was pretty cool. I always looked forward to the point in the song when Ponch would shift gears on his motorcycle just as the song jumped forward from the bridge into the last part of the melody. If you’re a guy, you probably remember the gear-shift thing.
Okay…maybe some of you girls remember it, too! :o)
Anyway…I used to just love that show, and I watched it religiously week-in and week-out for several years. And then one night, one particular episode reached right down into my soul and changed my life forever.
Forever?
Yep.
That's a pretty strong statement, Dave.
Yeah…I know. But I can vouch for it as I was there and paying rapt attention when it happened...
It was in the spring of 1981, and I was fifteen years old. I remember watching the episode as if it had played just yesterday.
The title?
Okay…maybe some of you girls remember it, too! :o)
Anyway…I used to just love that show, and I watched it religiously week-in and week-out for several years. And then one night, one particular episode reached right down into my soul and changed my life forever.
Forever?
Yep.
That's a pretty strong statement, Dave.
Yeah…I know. But I can vouch for it as I was there and paying rapt attention when it happened...
It was in the spring of 1981, and I was fifteen years old. I remember watching the episode as if it had played just yesterday.
The title?
“Karate.”
Yeah...so for like 60 minutes, I just sat there mesmerized as I watched Ponch use his karate skills to subdue the bad guys (who also knew Karate) and to inflame a few latent warrior longings that had been stirring within me for quite some time. That show changed my life, as I've already written. I remember, as I was watching it, telling myself, “I’m going to learn karate and be as cool as Ponch. Then, maybe, no one will mess with me again.”
And no one has (well...outside of the ring). At least, not in THAT way.
And no one has (well...outside of the ring). At least, not in THAT way.
And so began, on that spring day in 1981, a martial arts odyssey within my soul and body that continues even to this very day. As of this moment, I have been training in the martial arts for almost 30 years, now, and I can say that it is, in fact, the third best thing that ever happened to me.
The first, was finding my salvation in Jesus Christ.
The second...being born into the family I was born into.
And, of course, the third...discovering the martial arts.
My exposure to and training in the martial arts has brought a richness to my life that is hard for me to describe. My training has been nothing short of a God-breathed journey of self-discovery and self-knowledge. I know God brought it to me—gave it to me as a gift (His gift), and I am so grateful to Him for it.
My exposure to and training in the martial arts has brought a richness to my life that is hard for me to describe. My training has been nothing short of a God-breathed journey of self-discovery and self-knowledge. I know God brought it to me—gave it to me as a gift (His gift), and I am so grateful to Him for it.
During some of the darkest points in my life—points where I felt almost homicidal toward my late wife’s abusive family (this was years before [and after] Brenda’s suicide in 2002), God used those thousands of hours of facing opponents in the ring and of wailing away against that lonely heavy bag that hung downstairs in the basement of my parents’ house (and, later, against the many water-filled, free standing bags that graced my adult residences) to draw out, into the Light of His Countenance, the anger, rage, and hostility that burned within me. And it was in such drawings out that I felt God embrace me as I was and begin to exchange my "mournings" with the life-giving—life saving!—Oils of His Gladness.
For those of you who have been reading my blog and wonder where the title theme comes from, well, it comes from this very personal context as well as from a particular passage of scripture that has meant so much to me down through the years. The passage is found in Isaiah 61:1-4…
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners; to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the OIL OF GLADNESS instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting so they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified. Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins, they will raise up the former devastations; and they will repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations.
In future posts, I will write more of my love for the martial arts and how God has used such a thing in my life to cultivate the fruit of His meekness and gentleness.
I wish all of you a fabulous evening.
God’s peace, my friends,
Bling
Thou wilt make known to me the Path of Life: Thy Countenance is Fullness of Joy; at Thy Right Hand are pleasures forevermore.—Psalm 16:11
"CHiPs” Theme Song
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci8Ga-gCqno
Final Showdown, “Karate” Episode, “CHiPs,” March 8, 1981
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