It's a funny truth, but Jesus talked a
lot about how we had to surrender our lives to gain true life. He
made it clear that if we did surrender everything that we would gain
everything, as well, but we still had to give it up (Then Jesus said
to his disciples, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny
themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants
to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me
will find it.”). Ironically, AFTER trusting and following Jesus
and while 'giving up our lives' continually, we get the Holy Spirit
whose gifts include SELF-CONTROL.
This may seem funny, at first, that we have to give up our lives to
gain life and THEN we get more ability to control ourselves, but it
actually makes a lot of sense and parallels Aikido progress.
In
Aikido new students have to learn to 'go with the energy given' in a
technique and just move. This can be one of the hardest parts of
Aikido for many—especially for perfectionists or those who feel
they need to have control at all times. There are SO many things
that we can focus on in even the most basic technique—say
cross-hand wrist-grab wristlock-throw kota-gaeshi. It is possible to
write pages on that technique about foot position, timing, balance,
breathing, shifting weight at the appropriate times, angles, torques
on and through wrists, maintaining extension, keeping centered,
making sure to keep weight underside, being relaxed throughout the
technique, blending with the attacker's direction and energy, and
even where the eyes should look at different parts of the technique.
However, the more a new person focuses on more and more details and
tries to CONTROL every aspect of the technique, the worse the
technique usually gets. The mind literally cannot keep all the
details going at once when consciously thought through. We HAVE to
learn to let go of our need to control everything with force of will
and muscle and RELAX while just starting with one or two things.
Only once we let go of our rigid control can we let the movements of
the technique and the actual DOING of Aikido teach us. We may have
additional help from those who have more experience (as we do in a
Christian walk) or even direct advice from instructors or manuals
(again parallels the Christian way), but we still have to learn to
LET GO and RELAX and TRY. Ultimately, our greatest teacher is the
movement and the flow itself as we learn to listen to it (much like
we learn to listen to God and the Holy Spirit). Eventually, a
student gets much better at this and can even 'see' and guide many
techniques with a high degree of accuracy while they are occurring;
in the sense that they can now hear the flow and move within and even
guide a technique (as opposed to how they started off by trying to
forcefully control a technique through exerting their internal
strength and power) they have gained so much more control of any
incoming attack and of a technique—and in a way they never could
have done by controlling every little detail. This is a great irony,
and it is a great truth in both Aikido and the Christian walk. To
truly listen and 'hear' and learn, we have to first give up our need
and desire to control all parts of our lives/the techniques and
attackers in our lives. Only then are we TRULY able to learn from
the Aikido/from God and life.
More details about Godly Warriors lessons can be found at (www.GodlyWarriors.com).
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