"The warrior is hardwired into every man. This is true because he is made in the image of God, who is the Great Warrior. Like Father, like son. It is true because it constitutes a great part of man's mission here on earth - to join the Great Warrior in his battle against evil. It is this aggressive nature that will enable us to overcome the passivity and paralysis we inherited from Adam. In fact, we are siding with one or the other - the Warrior or the paralyzed man - in every decision we make, every day. Encouraging the Warrior as it begins to come into full force in a young man's life will be a great help to him as the years unfold, for you and I know how hard the battle is if we've spent years in passivity."
If you've spent any time around boys you'll see the warrior in them. No matter what they are doing or playing with, something will become some sort of weapon. Gun, sword, etc. It doesn't matter what it is, it just happens. I still find myself doing this at times. It happens, and it's supposed to. A man is a warrior, don't try to stop it. I remember when I was a child my cousins and I didn't have access to toy guns at one point. They had some toy tools, and so we pretended that the drills were handguns. My aunt yelled at us and told us to stop.
You have the parents who won't allow their children to play with toy weapons because they don't want them to grow up and be violent. Saying no does a lot of harm and it denies a boy the chance to do what he was created to do. Instead, a boy must be taught how to use a weapon properly. He needs to learn that they are dangerous and that they can take life. When I teach my boys to shoot in the future the first lesson they will learn is, "Never point this at something you don't want to kill, and as soon as you squeeze the trigger you are no longer in control of that bullet."
It is crucial that we encourage and train boys to be warriors. He was made for this purpose, and without the encouragement and training he will either be passive or violent. We can train boys and help them find their place in the epic story, or fail them and let them wander unsure through life and wind up like the scribe in Gladiator. Do you want your son to be the scribe or Maximus? Who do you want to be?
"The heart of the Warrior says, 'I will not let evil have its way. There are some things that cannot be endured. I've got to do something. There is freedom to be had.' The heart of the Warrior says, 'I will put myself on the line for you.' That is why it must come before the Lover stage, for he will need to do that time and time again in his marriage, and it is passivity that has broken the heart of many women. The Warrior nature is fierce, and brave, ready to confront evil, ready to go into battle. This is the time for a young mane to stop saying, 'Why is life so hard?' He takes the hardness as the call to fight, to rise up, take it on. He learns to 'set his face like a fling.' as Jesus had to do to fulfill his life's great mission."
A young man must be taught to stand up to evil, and in order for him to have the courage to do so, he must be trained and prepared for the hardships. He must have a warrior’s heart. And standing up to evil isn't an easy task. If he does, it's going to be difficult and full of hardships. That's why he must be a warrior. "How much hardship a man will endure, how long and tenaciously he will persevere is determined by the amount of Warrior within him."
Two things come to my mind from the Rocky movies when I read that. One comes from Rocky IV, as the plane lands in Russia there is a song playing, and the second verse contains these words:
In the warriors code there's no surrender
Though his body says stop his spirit cries - never!
Deep in our soul a quiet ember knows it's you against you
It's the paradox that drives us on
It's a battle of wills
In the heat of attack it's the passion that kills
The victory is yours alone
It's one of those songs I love to run/work out to. That mentality of I can, and will, push through this. "The time of the Warrior is the time of learning discipline, a concentration of body, mind, and spirit... when all hell breaks loose on the battlefield, a man has to have something to fall back on other than emotion. Spirits are high before you actually meet the enemy, but in the chaos of warfare high spirits can vanish in an instant." A warrior must be self-disciplined if he is going to survive and be victorious. He must never surrender and constantly push himself forward.
The second thing that I think of is from Rocky Balbo. "Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place, and I don’t care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard you hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done! Now, if you know what you’re worth, then go out and get what you’re worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain’t where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain’t you. You’re better than that!"
"The church has largely presented discipline as 'kill your heart and just do the right things.' That is terrible. It wearies the soul, and ends up destroying the heart - the very faculty you will need in the face of great trial and testing. Good discipline harnesses the passions, rather than killing them... A young man will need this strength of heart, whether to finish his PhD, or to hold fast his convictions under persecution, or to master an art form - all of which take great discipline, fueled by passion."
Without his heart and passions, a warrior cannot survive. Proverbs 18.14 says, "The spirit of a man can endure his sickness, but as for a broken spirit who can bear it?" Proverbs 17.22 tells us, "A joyful heart is good medicine, but a broken spirit dries up the bones." Nothing will suck the life out of you faster than having no passion, no goal, no drive. There are days that the only thing that keeps me going is my hope for the future, my belief, however faint it may be, that things will get better. The warrior must be determined, and never surrender his heart of his passion.
One final thought from Rocky. In Rocky III we hear the song "Eye of the Tiger", another one that's a personal preference for physical activity. We find these words in the verses:
Rising up, back on the street
Did my time, took my chances
Went the distance, now I'm back on my feet
Just a man and his will to survive
So many times it happens too fast
You change your passion for glory
Don't lose your grip on the dreams of the past
You must fight just to keep them alive
...
Face to face, out in the heat
Hanging tough, staying hungry
They stack the odds 'til we take to the street
For the kill with the skill to survive
...
Rising up, straight to the top
Had the guts, got the glory
Went the distance, now I'm not going to stop
Just a man and his will to survive
"This is absolutely essential to the Warrior, to develop an unyielding heart. This is where we will be most profoundly tested... I will not yield, I will not be a quitter - that is the Warrior coming out... The Warrior must learn to yield his heart to nothing. Not to kill his heart for fear of falling into temptation, but to protect his heart for more noble things, to keep the integrity of his heart as a great reservoir of passionate strength and holy desire."
I didn't realize that this was going to be so long when I started writing today, and as I've written my heart has been stirring. Yes, life is insanely hard right now, and nothing is ideal. As soon as things seem to be falling into place, something comes along to knock us back down. I've been ready to give up so many times, but I haven't, a big part of it is because of the responsibility I have to my wife. I'm in the middle of a battle right now. The world has knocked me to my knees and is trying to do everything it can to keep me there. Honestly, I'm tired of trying to get back up. Part of me wants to just curl up and take the hits until it’s over, but that's not what a warrior does. And eventually, I'll get up and the tables will turn.
"By the way - there is a place for comfort in the masculine journey, a place for mercy and rest and being ministered to. It's not all trial and test and battle, not by any means. It's just that most often, good comfort comes after the fight, and is so much more enjoyable in this way. One of the spoils of war."
The battle will end, but not without a fight. We are warriors, and warriors endure to victory.
"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."
To God alone be the Glory!
Strength and Honor
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