I remember as a kid thinking that it was cool to have been in a fight. At some time in my young life I heard an older teen ask another have you ever been in a fight? They would talk graphically about these fights. The brutality was as cool as cigarettes and burning rubber. I often wondered what characteristics must be involved for an encounter to be labeled as a fight.
Often as children my sister and I had “fights”. On one occasion I pushed her into the living room window. Does that qualify as a fight? I am not sure but I do know that we broke the window and were required to pay for the replacement. Parenthetically, window replacement in the late 70’s cost exactly the amount required for two girls to go skating on a Saturday morning. I recall one time my dad was so sick of the fighting that he made us stand in front of the house near the highway and physically and publicly fight with one another. He followed that with roadside embracing.
That guy I live with and I don’t fight now but when we were younger we had disagreements from time to time. Once I bought him a spooky neck tie to wear to work on Halloween. That particular year Halloween fell on a Friday, casual Friday, and he refused to wear the tie. Finally, to appease me, he put the tie on. It didn’t make me as happy as you might imagine and if I remember correctly I took the scissors and snipped the tie off about 5 inches below his chin. We referenced that as a fight but I’m sure that was just fussing.
When I was in junior high I remember an organized fight that was supposed to take place downtown Beckville just after school. I don’t remember what the fight was to solve or what started it but in junior high school it seemed everything revolved around boys and baby aspirin. The girls were to meet downtown and with a crowd of fellow students of all ages circled around to witness the pulling and tugging, kicking and clawing, hair pulling and squealing and rolling around on the pavement. I stood proudly to watch.
We all have stories about fighting and fussing, arguments and disagreements. If you don’t have any such stories, turn on daytime television.
So why am I talking about fighting? I consider myself to be somewhat non confrontational. I don’t do physical aggression. While I am very opinionated I don’t consider myself to be argumentative. On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being most likely to walk away, I am a solid 14. That said, I likely stomped my foot and walked away pouting. That’s who I am.
Earlier this week, I heard someone reference the scripture, II Timothy 4:7 where Paul said, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith” as a summation of his life. I have always loved and often quoted this passage because like most people I read this as someone at peace with what they did and how they did it. I have mentioned on many occasions that I am not one for making New Years Resolutions but I do have goals for my life. One of those goals is to not leave this life with overwhelming regret.
Men and women much smarter than I have pondered and expounded on this verse through the years, in foreign languages and around the globe. I will only look at it from the most practical and most elementary application. If you were to summarize your Christian walk, the choices that define you, and the way you displayed your relationship with Christ as a conflict, would you honestly describe it as a FIGHT? Maybe it was a scuffle, or a fuss? If I tallied up the defining choices of the 1990’s for me, I would not find fight; not even a snarl. I refer to those as the complacent years. I was indifferent and unconcerned for a major part of the decade.
What about now? I told you I am not much for New Years Resolutions. I operate more on the principle and philosophy of “Start where you are, use what you have, do what you can,”~ Arthur Ashe (rinse and repeat). But if I decided that I needed to ‘fight’ it would be a great time to start.
My friend and coworker, Scott Kujak, is the founder and creator of Underdog Podcast as well as the 2018 Golden Gloves Champion in the super heavyweight division of Austin, Texas. Even in his suit and tie at 6ft 4inches he can present as a force to be reckoned with but when you walk straight up to him, unafraid and bold, he will smile and you will see it in his eyes. You will also notice that around his thick right wrist he wears a rubber bracelet that says, James 1:2-3, and he means it. The combination of these and the reputation of compassion for everyone he encounters made him the ideal person to talk to about preparing for the fight.
I asked Scott this: if I wanted to start boxing for fun, obviously and ridiculously hypothetical fun, what 2 to 3 things must I do to prepare? I need to be ready but as I told him, my boxing training was a direct reflection on the abilities of Rocky Balboa and consisted mostly on being able to scream, “Yo, Adrianne” in the appropriate Italian Stallion accent.
I gave him some time to think about it but I don’t think that changed or altered his response at all:
1. Discipline. Running and jumping rope, sparring and pushing through the bruises; getting back in the ring to do it all over again.
I texted the word discipline into my phone quickly all the time thinking, consistency, persistence, perseverance, determination. My Baptist mind scrolled through my scripture memory bank, “Pick up you cross” “Crucified daily” and finally landed on a passage marked in my bible as “daily walk”; 1 Chronicles 16:8-15. I read the scripture to myself and thought it sounded so easy compared to the day in the ring that Scott described. 1 Chronicles 16: 8-15 is a Psalm and required no head gear, no gloves, no mouth guard. Comparatively, easy. Then I remembered my opponent and his wiles, the snares he hurls and his ability to derail my discipline. In Ephesians 6 we are warned that we fight against principalities and powers that have taken off the gloves. To prepare for the fight, we need to put on the full armor of God. I don’t think the jump rope is going to prepare me for the fiery darts of the wicked but I have the shield of faith. That’s where the discipline comes into play. Discipline is the choice, ability and determination to raise the shield even if you are bruised and tired.
2. Mentally confident but not cocky. Bold. Calm confident.
As Scott described and explained his comments I thought about my days of being in high school athletics; the mindset, the emotional roller coaster of winning then losing, the expectations and disappointments. It’s often difficult for us to find the calm confidence. Let’s be honest, physical conditioning is tough but mental conditioning is as brutal as two junior high girls fighting in the streets of town. In Romans 7 Paul has a little breakdown and pens a level of genuine frustration to the church of Rome; the internal conflict of potential and practical warring in his mind. In verse 25 of the same chapter and the beginning of chapter 8 he pulls it back together with the blessed assurance, the calm confidence. To prepare for the fight, we need to be still and know (PS 46:10) who God is, we need to be bold as a lion (Proverbs 28:1), not because of our abilities but because of our Creator.
3. Fight for purpose. Deeper meaning.
I had to ask. You all want to know. Why would you intentional get in reach of someone trying to hit you? (I love you, Scott, but in my old mind that makes about as much sense as eating a Tide pod.) His answer made me question the things I do. Where I may ask, “why do you box?”; he might ask, “why do you blog?” I found 261 scriptures in the King James that ask “why”. That’s not a lot of questions for a book so full of answers. Don’t complicate this; it can be simple and straightforward. I am going to get up every morning and exercise with my “daily walk” and I am going to be bold and confident in the Gospel not for trophies, or accolades, or championship titles. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “do all to the glory of God” and in verse 33, “that they may be saved.”
I know at least one question left unanswered, am I even in the fight?
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