About the Sport Principle
Judo is one of the most widely practised sports in the world.
Our English word, ‘Judo’ is taken from two Japanese words: ‘do’ meaning ‘way’ and ‘ju’ meaning ‘gentle’. It is literally ‘the gentle way’. Judo involves ‘moving with’ an opponent. ‘Push when pulled, and when pushed, pull’ is a mantra that can often be heard in dojos (judo training halls) around the world. This principle literally empowers a nine-stone female judo player, to throw a 26-stone monster, as though he is nothing. This is possible because, in reality, she hasn’t thrown him, he has thrown himself, all the nine-stone judo expert has done is utilised her opponent’s momentum against him, and floored him with spectacular effect.
Application to life
Perhaps, like a boxer, you feel you are up against the ropes, ready to throw in the towel in your life today! As men, we often approach our lives more like boxers than judo players. This is wrong. We try to shout louder, or hit harder, and fight force with force. At one level, this might quite literally be the case if you are in the habit of, say, having shouting matches with your kids or your wife. If so, that needs to stop right away. You need to climb out of the boxing ring, and start moving ‘with’ your kids, or wife, or work colleagues, or whomever it is. (You probably will literally floor them with your change of approach!) When you next feel ‘pushed’ in your life, instead of instinctively pushing back, try pulling instead. Go with the momentum generated by an opponent, and see what happens!
The well-known ancient parable about the argument between the sun and the wind, told by the Greek philosopher, Aesop, makes this point well: They agree that the first to get a traveller’s coat off his back would be the winner. The wind goes first, and like a world-class boxer, hits the traveller with everything he has, blowing as hard as he can, but all that happens is that the traveller grips his coat even tighter as he wraps it around himself even more. Then the sun comes out and shines warmly on the traveller, and in a matter of moments, the traveller has removed his own coat, giving the victory to the judo-expert sun, who has worked with, instead of against, his opponent! But at another level, is it possible to start to ‘judo’ the cause of the arguments in your life, or even your life itself, just by changing the way you see it?
‘Moving with’ the Holy Spirit’s ‘gentle way’ of prompting you in any given difficult situation is another way to practise judo instead of boxing. Jesus, the ultimate judo-master, seems to have latched onto this principle: Jesus always started where people were at, and worked with them from there: When he came across Zacchaeus, a despised tax-collector, he declared he would eat at his house BEFORE Zacchaeus stated he would pay back those he had cheated 4 times over. Zacchaeus’ change of heart was not a requirement of Jesus’ acceptance of him. And Jesus does this in his dealings with people all the time. God seems to have built principles of judo into His Kingdom centuries before it was even invented as a modern combat system and Olympic sport in the late 1800s. May you begin to work with the Holy Spirit today and discover that you already possess everything you need within you to win life’s battles, and love those around you. May you do this as a practitioner of the ultimate ‘gentle way,’ the way of Jesus, rather than as someone who sees those around you as a verbal punching bag.
“Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.”
1 Corinthians 9:26.
Image Credit: Joshua Jamias
