Discipline and backsliding

One of my interests... or former obsessions... was/is MMA or mixed martial arts. As well as being a keen viewer I was also a participant (and to some extent still am). Within my MMA experience there were several disciplines that needed attention. Principally these were Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (or submission wrestling), Thai Boxing (Muay Thai) and Wrestling. There were elements of Boxing and Judo thrown in also. So there were quite a range of skills to master.

To compete even at an amateur level requires a huge amount of time, attention discipline and fitness. I was fortunate enough to be able to compete professionally... I say fortunate as many people train for years and years and despite wanting to do so, never fulfil that desire. I fought 6 times between July 2007 and March 2009. In that time I was fully immersed in the sport. Everything took a back seat to MMA. I deified it in fact. MMA was my God I’m sad to say.

Diet, fitness, lifestyle... everything was committed to my MMA idol. It was clearly (in hindsight) the idol I needed to fill large gaps in my life as I didn’t have the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God to fulfil... well... everything.

This is not to say MMA didn’t teach me lots. It taught me an immense amount of self discipline and how to set and maintain high standards and also an appreciation of commitment. It also stopped me from indulging in even more ‘damaging’ or unhealthy idolatry (though that sounds somewhat contradictory).This is also rather ironic to say when one considers the object of the exercise is to punch, kick, knee, twist, choke and hyperextend anything your opponent will allow you to. I was good at it too. There are many aspects of that disciplined life I can apply in my Christian life, but I am also very mindful of how easy it would be to be drawn back into deifying MMA once again, or to substitute it for something else.

As it stands my body won’t let me. My back is injured, but not damaged. It’s like God has fitted a choker chain on my life of training and exercise. If I strain too hard at the leash, it tightens, as does my back and hip preventing me from doing too much. It is, thank the Lord, a limiter. As I’ve written this I’ve realised that maybe God is saying to me ‘you’re not as disciplined as you think’ – if I was so ultra disciplined I wouldn’t need to worry about backsliding would I?

This was intended to be a short post as it was prompted by reading a quote by a famous wrestling coach, Dan Gable. It made me wonder that if someone of this mindset could apply the attitude to the most important aspects of their Christian life (in love and obedience), how blessed they would be.

“I’m a big believer in starting with high standards and raising them. We make progress only when we push ourselves to the highest level. If we don’t progress, we backslide into bad habits, laziness and poor attitude."

Finally read this quote and substitute the ‘top priorities’ for a Christian’s priorities of prayer, studies, worship and preaching (or hearing) and ultimately and pre-eminently of course, glorification of our Lord.

“When you finally decide how successful you really want to be, you’ve got to set priorities. Then, each and every day, you’ve got to take care of the top ones. The lower ones may fall behind, but you can’t let the top ones slip. You don’t forget about the lower ones though because they can add up to hurt you. Just take care of the top ones first. In 25 years as a head coach and assistant, I think I might have missed one practice. Why? Because practice is my top priority. A day doesn’t go by when I don’t accomplish something in my family life or my profession because those two things are my top priorities."

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