The past couple weeks have been extremely hard. The enemy has been attacking from every angle. I miss my friends and family. We have less than 2 months left on the Race, so I want to figure out what’s next. Every weekend we invite friends to come with us to our church, and they tell us they’ll come, but they usually don’t. It’s discouraging. People on our squad have had to return home early for various reasons, and part of me wants to find a reason to just give up and go home.
As I’ve been thinking about home lately, my mind wandered back to the Westminster Christian Academy wrestling room and the time I spent there. I remember Coach Murphy reminding us over and over how important it is to get wrist control early and often. I can literally hear Coach Pippin telling me “Troyanek, pick your head up.” while making us run for what felt like an eternity. I can’t even begin to count the number of times I heard “belly down and base up” after I got taken down. I think back to my 7th grade year when I absolutely hated every single part of wrestling. I went 0-13 that year, but Coach Singles wouldn’t let me quit.
As I’ve sat and thought about all of these things that were ingrained in my head in that wrestling room, I’ve begun to realize how valuable they are off the mat. These sayings that I got so tired of hearing are the exact things I’m using to combat spiritual warfare.
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“Get wrist control early and often.” In this case, control of your thoughts. If you’re continuously filling your mind with the Word, the enemy has no room to attack. Get control.
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“Pick your head up.” This one is tough. It’s so easy to sulk when things get hard. At practice I kept running, but my eyes were on the ground. Over the past few weeks, I’ve continued to do ministry, but my head has been down. In order to defeat the attacks enemy, you have to keep going, but with your head up.
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“Belly down and base up.” The truth is, there are times when I don’t get control early, things get hard, my head drops, and the enemy takes me down. But after being taken down, you can’t just sit still, you have to move. Get back to your base. Hold onto the truth that you’re a son or daughter of the King and He loves you. So get up. The match isn’t over.
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“No, you can’t quit.” There are days when I lose the match against the enemy. Days when nothing goes my way and the only thing I want to do is give up. But that’s not an option. The Lord has called me to run this race with perseverance. Jesus has already won the tournament, all you have to do is call on His name.
To all of the coaches from every sport out there, thank you. You’re making a bigger impact than you’ll ever know.
