Natural Lessons That Can Be Spiritual (Example From Boxing/Krav Maga): Why Rest (Conserving Energy) & Focus Are So Important. The Donkey In This Photo Broke Down Because His Owners Overloaded Him.

One of the easiest ways to defeat someone stronger than you is to overload them, have them use all their energy on things that do not matter, and keep them distracted. Another way is to convince them they are less than who they are, for as a man or woman thinketh in their heart-so are they. You see this in boxing; wear out your opponent or keep them distracted or insult them to try to get in their head.

I had a sparing training match with a primarily left handed fighter. I watched them carefully. They could not execute with the right arm well. I allowed them to swing at me on their left side and blocked every blow. I went after wearing out and disabling their left side. They lost. My intent was not cruelty and this was training, not a fight fight. I told the person. “You are weak on your right side and it’s obvious. You also expend too much energy right off the bat trying to fight me. Conserve your energy, make me work. Make your opponent expend energy and get tired. When your opponent is stronger than you, you let them wear themselves out trying to defeat you. You conserve energy and when they are weaker, you have an even fight. I am ambidextrous and have an advantage over you, instead of wearing yourself out, you should have focused on trying to get me to fight you, not block you.” I took her down quickly because she was so eager to fight she forget that there is a strategy to battle.

The devil is not stupid as people claim. He pays attention to what bothers people, what get’s people worked up and upset, and he loves crisis, fighting, debate, confusion. He wears people out with worry, stress, strain, or fighting battles that are not theirs to fight. Pretty soon the stronger person (Greater is He who is in you, than in the world) is in the corner exhausted. Why? They are overloaded.

I love what my dad does, where he documents a prayer then does not worry God again. He simply touches the paper when He thinks about it and says, “God you know.”

The other tactic of the enemy is to convince humanity that they are not who God says they are. He excels in put downs, mean sarcasm, harassment, mistreatment, in inserting doubt about who God says a person is. He did it with Jesus in the wilderness-“If you are the Son of God.” Well, Satan Jesus is the Son of God. How many times has someone spoken something over you and it was not of God, it was intended to create doubt so you would come into agreement with the liar Satan. Why? What we agree with, we empower. Jesus was wise enough to say, “It is written.” When someone comes at you with identity and confidence killers, you can say, “Oh no, it is written that I am who God says I am, and can do ALL He empowers me to do.”

God did not intend for us to be overloaded. Jesus stated plainly to come to Him all who are weary and heavy laden and He would give us rest. We are not supposed to be in war 24/7 and if we are in war, then we fight from the victory of the risen Christ.

One tool I see used in my own life is when my life is okay, for people to come out of no where with their own crisis, whether it’s family, associate, person from my past, or random ministry person. The person needs help. Yet I had to learn to assess what God wants me to do. Otherwise, I can end up absolutely exhausted. I rarely have a small storm, it’s normally multiple storms or trials at a time and storms around me. Yes we speak peace during storms. We also need to learn to lay down and take a nap. Jesus slept through storms.

I say often, “We cannot do everything, we can do something.” Sometimes that something is laying the situation or person on the alter of God and leaving them there. Sometimes it is offering the person another resource that’s not you. It’s not cruel to assess the energy you have and use wisdom on how to carry the load. Every load is not our load.

I carry quite a bit and 2018 gave me load after load. I triage the loads and try to put as much as possible on the alter of God. Why? I cannot carry everything. I am not a super hero. I am a human being. Too much crisis, too much trauma, too much tragedy, too much loss, too much conflict is bad. There must be times of refreshing. There must be times to truly rest from heavy loads.

Are you loaded down? Are you carrying loads that need placed on the alter of Jesus? Are you expending energy on things that are not supposed to be your focus?

Photo: Business Insider (REUTERS/Ahmad Masood)

Warmly,

Erin Lamb