Vigilance

Growing up, I gravitated toward danger. I don’t know if this is a boy thing or just a human thing, but nonetheless, it was one of the things that attracted my attention. I played sports in which inflicting violence on others was part of the game. Football isn’t football without punishing hits. Baseball isn’t necessarily violent, but I played catcher. I loved plays at the plate that involved a crash in order to protect home base. However, wrestling was the most violent sport I played, and it demanded everything from me.

My first sport was wrestling. This was not the type of wrestling you see on WWF. This was freestyle wrestling. The goal of wrestling is to pin the shoulders of your opponent to the mat for at least 3 seconds. My Dad, who was a state champion wrestler, taught me the moves that could punish me or help me win the match depending on who was using them…me or my opponent. Moves like, “The Arm Bar”, “The Cross Face,” “The Double Grapevine,” and “The Banana Split” communicate pain even if you don’t know what these moves are (trust me, you don’t want to be on the receiving end of these). All of these moves were created to make your opponents submit to you (or you to him).

Wrestling is a fully engaged sport. When facing an opponent you are pulled into a battle mentally, physically, and emotionally. At the weigh in, you stand next to your opponent, and you get the chance to size each other up. This pre-game weigh in was a complete mind game. There were many opponents I faced who came to the weigh in with their sweatshirt sleeves lined with safety pins from their shoulder to their wrist designating how many matches they had won by a pin. Then there was the match itself. Wrestling another man was one of the greatest physical tests I have ever faced. There was not a match in which I competed where I wasn’t completely exhausted at the finish. Every muscle in my body was used to exert my will on my opponent or counter my opponents will. Then after the match, I was either the victor or the loser, and I had to face the crowd to await the verdict by the referee (even if the verdict was clear). Wrestling had the power to either give me an inflated sense of self worth or strip every once of it I had.

Ultimately, wrestling taught me that I could not let my guard down…ever. The moment I let my guard down mentally, physically or emotionally, I was going to lose.

To be clear, it wasn’t the violence that attracted me to wrestling (or the other sports I played), it was the byproduct of facing that sport’s particular danger that really attracted me. The byproduct of the danger was the singular vision of vigilance mentally, physically, and emotionally that was drawn out in me as I faced the sport’s inherent danger.

As I have been reading through 2 Timothy with you, I have been reminded of the danger of following Christ. Mentally, physically, and emotionally we face danger all day long. Our Opponent is constantly using moves on us to submit us to his will. He seeks to weaken our vigilance to keep the sound teaching of the gospel, and to guard the good deposit that is in us. In reality, it doesn’t necessarily feel like I am in a battle. Right now, I am sitting in Panera having a cup of coffee writing this letter to you. I don’t feel particularly threatened. As a result, it is all too easy to let life happen to me, rather than to do the work of keeping and guarding in my faith. I basically let my Enemy work his moves on me all day long without countering them.

Last week, Paul’s words reminded me again to stay vigilant to living life that keeps the sound teaching that leads me to faith and love in Jesus. I was also reminded to be vigilant in guarding the good deposit of the gospel knowing that it is all to easy to live a life without grace at the center of it. When I let my guard down, the Enemy punishes me. His moves submit my thoughts, my actions, and my spirit to his will instead of the Lord’s will.

Pray with me that we would become aware of the moves that the Enemy seeks to put on us to submit us to his will. As a result, let us become vigilant to keep to the sound teaching that leads us to faith and love in Jesus, and to guard the good deposit so that our lives our lived with grace at the center of it.