Black Belt Faith

Today we went to a local martial arts studio to see a friend take her black belt certification test in taekwando.  The test lasted two hours. That's two solid hours of swinging nun-chucks, kicks, punches, jumps, push-ups, sparring, proper form, jumping jacks, leg lifts and sweat.  Lots of sweat.  I don't know what I was expecting, but that wasn't it.  It was all about breaking down the candidates physically and pushing them to their absolute limits to see how they respond.  Earning a black belt was more about perseverance than perfection.

I couldn't help but compare the experience to the walk of faith for a Christian.  Here are a few comparisons:
1. The instructors and the spectators were there to cheer the candidates on, to encourage them to go farther and try harder than they would otherwise, and to bear witness to their expected success.  The church is meant to do the same.  1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV, "Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing."

2. One of the criteria that the candidates were being judged on was attitude.  They could do the entire two hour workout perfectly, but if they refused to bow in respect, respond appropriately to their instructors, and show a level of enthusiasm for what they were doing, they would fail.  The same is true for the Christian. I Corinthians 13:1-3 ESV "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."

3. The candidates were expected to yell back their responses to each of the instructors questions.  We were in a small enclosed space and yelling seemed odd, but it was required.  One of the instructors explained to the spectators that the reason they required the candidates to yell was that when you yell, it forces you to inhale deeply afterward, and breathing is one of the most important things for the candidates to do to keep them going.  Rather than telling them to breathe over and over again, they train them to yell and allow the breathing to come naturally.  Sometimes directions from a learned master don't seem to make sense, but we trust in our teacher who knows more than we do.  It is the same for the Christian.  Isaiah 55:8-9 "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord.For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts."

4. Perseverance and stamina over the long haul are key to success.  There will be moments of feeling like you can't go on for every black belt candidate - probably more than one over the course of two hours, but continuing on regardless of feelings, trusting that a second/third/fourth wind will catch up to you if you just press on.  The same is true of the Christian.  James 1:12 ESV, "Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him."

A black belt is just a white belt that never gave up.
A saint is just a saved sinner that persevered in the faith.

---