Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Fighting with God

I had the pleasure of attending a very unique conference last weekend with this title. It was the first ever conference put on by Agon Fighters which encompassed professional MMA (Mixed Martial Art for those who are testosterone challenged) fighters as well as a few Pastor/Speakers. Being that I follow MMA closely and have seen many fights over the last couple of years, it was pretty cool to be in the same room and only a few feet away from at least one of the fighters that I have seen fight on TV. Seeing the fighters up close, it also reinforced the fact that I was smart picking a non-violent profession!

During one of the sessions they had a Q&A session with the fighters as well as our Pastor Mark Driscoll (who is a huge MMA fan). One of the questions to the fighters was how do you prepare for a fight or in Mark’s case, how do you prepare to preach? The answer given was so simple but yet so enlightening at the same time…It has to be a lifestyle. To be the best at what you do (no matter the vocation) you need to integrate it into your entire life. No, this is not permission to become a workaholic. Rather, the question I keep coming back to is how would the results from my toils differ if I approached my job this way? Would I find greater satisfaction in my job? Would I be able to see the positives more than the negative? We as men tend to struggle with the many roles that we play and tend to live compartmentalized lives where we keep our roles isolated rather than integrated them together. Aren't we really short changing ourselves by doing this?

Now comes the hard part, what can I do to change this?

2 comments:

Toirdhealbheach Beucail said...

Working my way up the page...

Odd - I never knew this about you before. It suprises me, honestly.

Chuck Swindoll has a great story about an old machinist he worked with during graduate school. He was always ready for the shift whistle, without having to be told. When asked by Chuck how he got ready, he replied "I keep ready to keep from getting ready."

This is actually turning out to be a theme I am wrestling with myself this year (see today's entry - I get there like you do via a different way) as well as Buttercup. In my opinion, our success as Christians and impacting our world is only as great as our ability to who we are as Christians into our lives. In a way, Christ was the most integrated human that ever lived: He truly was His message. We have created a Christian culture that separates who we are as Christians from who we are as the "Rest of the Week" people. If it's in the Bible or can deduced from teachings, let's adhere to it; if it's not there, and we are not in sin or causing our brother to stumble, let's allow each other the grace to be. You could argue that it even creates the same false dichotomy in church, being not who we really are or who we are supposed to be.

Otis said...

Maybe its my way of holding on to the last bit of testosterone I have left from living in a house full of women...