Back in high school I was a wrestler. I loved the sport, every aspect of it. Ok, maybe not the cutting weight, definitely not the cutting weight, that part really sucked, but even with that, wrestling pushed me in a way that nothing else ever has. When I wrestled, I was in the best shape of my life, at one point I was at less than 6% body fat, but I was also extremely mentally tough. The reason wrestling is so difficult is because you're expected to fully perform while hungry and thirsty (things have changed since my day, I was starving and dehydrated). While there is a team element to the sport, it is largely an individual competition. You decide how hard you're going to work, you decide how much effort you're going to put into practice, and on your own. Basically, you decide how bad you want it and then decide how much of a price you're willing to pay. I was at an off season open tournament early in my career and I saw a sign in the wrestling room that said, "The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare." That sums up the sport. Everyone wants to win, but not everyone is willing to pay the price to be able to.
When I was wrestling, no one was going to out work me. I was getting up in the morning and lifting before school, going to practice after classes, and then going home and putting in a third workout on my own. I didn't know what a limit was because I pushed through them. As I write this I keep thinking about the second verse of "The Burning Heart" from Rocky IV:
In the warrior’s 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
My body would say stop, but my spirit wouldn't let it. Because of the training I put in, I won matches against more experienced opponents, and there were matches that I lost but was able to compete in and they were close because of the work I put in (and even with my hard work, there were times I got destroyed). Back in the day I could push myself to do anything. I trained hard, even when I was alone. I wanted to win, and I had the will to prepare.
Fast forward a little over a decade. I'm older, slower, and heavier. I don't know what my body fat is, but I know it's more than 6%. I'm still decently built, but I'm in nowhere near the shape I was back in high school. Part of that is life. School is still a factor, but much of the rest of my day is taken up with work. I don't have the freedom that I used to have, but let's be honest, the biggest thing is that I've lost the will to train. I really haven't had a goal to work towards, and it's easier to sit around after a long day at work than to go through a workout. However, I'm facing a challenge this year that requires some preliminary preparation.
This year our group outing is going to challenge us physically (I'm not going to reveal the details at this point) and a few months back I realized that I needed to get in better shape to be ready for this retreat. I work with a guy who is a personal trainer, and asked him if he'd be willing to create a workout program designed to help prepare us for this specific activity, and he did. This past week I started working out again, and since it's been several years since I've intentionally exercised beyond a walk/hike, I'm sore, really sore (I'm sore in areas I didn't know could be sore). Aside from making me miss the good old days when I would work out hard six days a week for months and not feel a thing, I miss the drive I had back then. This week I was doing the push up routine of the workout and caught myself wanting to slack off on the last few repetitions. I'm easing back into working out by splitting the routine into two days instead of one for the first few weeks, but I found myself wanting to ease even more. Fortunately, I realized what I was doing, and forced myself to finish the set. It wasn't easy, and it wasn't fun, but I know that if I do the training now, it'll make the outing in June much more enjoyable.
Training is part of life, perhaps the most essential part of life. It's a lot easier when there is a goal. Today I did a Bible search and found four different reasons/results for training. The most prevalent idea is training for battle. The Bible describes wars being fought by trained men (Genesis 14.14, 1 Chronicles 12.8), and it also talks about the Lord training, and strengthening, us for battle (2 Samuel 22.35, Psalm 18.34, 144.1). This idea, that of the warrior, is the focus of our retreat this year, we are looking at the third stage Eldredge identifies on the masculine journey, and so the training in preparation for the "battle" fits so well.
However, war training is not the only one mentioned in Scripture. 1 Chronicles 25.7 says, "Their number who were trained in singing to the Lord, with their relatives, all who were skillful, was 288." The worship of God involves training/teaching. Along with this idea is that of training for life. The first verse to come up in my search was Proverbs 22.6, "Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it." Luke 6 talks about a pupil needing to be trained by his teacher. Paul said in 2 Timothy 3, that the Bible is profitable for training in righteousness, and the author of Hebrews said in chapter 5 that training prepares the senses to discern good and evil.
Training is an important part in the life of any warrior. Without my training I wouldn’t have been able to do anything on the wrestling mat. And while this fallen world presents a constant need for diligent training, I think of the Navy SEALs saying “The only easy day was yesterday”, the Bible promises peace, and an eventual end of training.
“And He will judge between many peoples and render decisions for mighty, distant nations. Then they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they train for war.” (Micah 4.3)
“All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.” (Hebrews 12.11)
Training ends in peace. There will be a struggle, we are warriors training for battle, but because we stand with God, we are assured of victory.
Training sucks, I’m not going to lie; even when I was in my prime it wasn’t fun. But training is essential. Without training we can’t participate in the battle, and if we do, we aren’t equipped and won’t survive. I don’t want to be the guy that gets taken out because he failed to prepare. I don’t want to be the one guy struggling to keep up, and slowing everyone down in June, and so I’m going to train and prepare myself for the adventure. I don’t want to hinder the growth of those who look to me for guidance, and I want to be able to train others in proper worship of God and righteousness, which means I need to be trained to discern good and evil, truth and deception.
I want to taste the rest that peace will bring, and victory never tastes sweeter than when you know you’ve put in the work to prepare for it. I want to be ready, trained physically for our outing, and spiritually for battle. I want to be at my best so that I can fully glorify God.
At the end of my matches I used to point at heaven, giving the glory back to God, He made me able to train, and He rewarded me with the opportunity to compete. I want my life to constantly point to God, training in righteousness, and fighting for His truth as we look forward to the coming peace. Train.
TO GOD ALONE BE THE GLORY!
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