Watch a wrestling match and a couple of things stand out: It’s one-on-one combat and the looser is pinned on bottom. There are all kinds of wrestling styles. Collegiate, also called scholastic or folkstyle is the most common at U.S. universities and is modified for U.S. high schools. Other styles include Greco-Roman, Freestyle, Turkish (yep the two wrestlers are covered in olive oil) and Pankration to name just a few.
“To pursue a faith-disciplined commitment to physical fitness and total life fitness you must master the deadlift workout where your total strength comes from your total obedience to God.”
Wrestling is one of the oldest forms of combat, dating back to ancient Babylonian times. Pankration is a Greek word that may describe the activity best. It means, “The one who controls everything”. The general goal is for one person to exert control over the other. Often our human nature is to force others into submission. Basically variations on the story of Cain and Able repeated daily. It’s how we win – right?
WRESTLING, POWER-LIFTING AND GOD?
Talking about wrestling and power lifting in the same article may get you wondering, “Where is this going and what does it have to do with me?” My Faith & Fitness Magazine interview Pursuing POWER By LIFTING Lives with Bryan Neese, power lifter and sports performance coach at an Indiana high school where his son Steele is a wrestling coach offers a modern-day example of how the two can be connected. However, I want to take the conversation and your personal application of it much further.
For a wrestling perspective on spiritual living the Bible offers us the story of Jacob wrestling with an angel. The outcome? His hip was put out of joint and he gains a new name, Israel, which means, “He who struggles with God”. For a power lifting perspective on spiritual living you need look no further than when Jesus carried His own cross. A deadlift refers to lifting “dead” (without momentum) weight. Jesus Christ took it a lot further by being nailed to the same cross He lifted and dying for us. Wrestling is a ‘put down’ action and lifting is a ‘raise up’ action. When we consider God’s plan for us and juxtapose the two we see that total obedience IS total power.
I see a lot of people going to the gym with good intentions. They want to lose weight, gain muscular strength, find new friends, look better and just be happier. There isn’t anything wrong with any of that UNLESS what we want isn’t what God wants.
We need to look at areas of our lives where we often want to exert our own power. When we choose to do our will then we’re not submitting to God’s will or purpose. We’re on top and He is put down.
DO YOU WRESTLE WITH GOD OR LIFT HIM HIGH?
Have you ever thought, “I’ve been treated wrong, but I’m going to make sure that never happens again. It’s all me. Whatever I want, if I want it bad enough, I can do it.” Hate and selfishness are attitudes that can easily gain the upper hand in our thinking and behavior. When they do, we’ve wrestled with God’s spirit of love. We don’t just hurt ourselves we impede God when we allow defeat or depression to crush our joy. When you are unsatisfied or dwell in fear you can never fully stand tall with a peace that goes beyond understanding. When a demanding workout leads you to being demanding or impulsive with others you fail to achieve the greater strength of God’s divine patience. When we give ourselves permission to be irritable, disregard others and act emotionally careless and spiritually reckless then we’ve defeated God’s purpose to strengthen and condition our souls with self-control.
(Our human behavior defines us. Cruelty like that demonstrated by the coach in this video may be extreme but do you show kindness, a fruit of God’s spirit, when opportunities arrise?)
We may never think we could act like a cruel coach but if we don’t intentionally act with kindness, we’re missing the mark. We rationalize that Roid-rage is unacceptable extreme behavior, but when we’re easily agitated and then treat others harshly then we fail to know and share the incredible strength of being calm and humble, a quality of God’s gentleness. In the competitive culture of sport and the motivated mindset of personal fitness success the ruthless “show no mercy” approach is often elevated over goodness. Do you wrestle with doubt or gain advantage by being deceptive or cheating? It is what we do when we avoid deadlifting hope and confidence, having authenticity and maintaining fidelity. Faith is the skeletal structure on which these strong muscles are flexed.
The fitness culture fuels a spirit that longs for strength but is at odds with God. To pursue a faith-disciplined commitment to physical fitness and total life fitness you must master the deadlift workout where your total strength comes from your total obedience to God. It is only then that you will fully experience the total power you desire – the real power that God intends for you.
God has a vision for you that is much greater than you can craft. Don’t question that. Believe it. Jesus said, “All power is given to me in heaven and in earth. I can assure you that whoever believes in me will do the same things I have done. And they will do even greater things than I have done, because I am going to the Father.”
