About the Sport Principle
Judo: “The gentle art of folding people’s clothes, with the people still in them.” Judo hurts. At the end of a hard night’s training, literally shedding blood, sweat and tears, covered in bruises, dripping with sweat, and nursing countless aches and pains it’s hard to see it as the ‘gentle way’. Anyone who has practised judo will know that this is a really bad translation. Some say a better translation of the word is the ‘efficient way’. The judo player is always looking for the most efficient way to take an opponent to the ground, or out, with a strangle, an armlock or a vice-like pin to the floor. This translation does work well when we consider that all of life is hard-wired for efficiency. If you always use a handrail on a staircase, your body quickly adapts, and not using the handrail becomes very difficult, or if you always sit to tie your shoes, balancing in a crouched position quickly becomes almost impossible. What works physiologically at a subconscious level, works in our conscious decision-making processes too. Consider making a cup of tea in the kitchen: very few of us will make a journey to the cupboard for the teabag, and then go back again for the sugar. As human beings we tend to automatically apply the ‘principle of least effort’. We’ll get the teabag and the sugar in the same journey, and perhaps incorporate a visit to the fridge on the way.
Application to Life
Always look for the efficient way. Time is an equal opportunity employer. All of us get 24 hours in a day, no more, no less. Rather than concentrating on time management, perhaps we should get better at managing our lives. Sometimes, perhaps for us especially as men, the efficient use of time isn’t what we think it is. I remember reading a Christian book years ago when my 2 boys were very small that stated very clearly that the best thing you can do for your son is to love his mum! That was great advice then and it is now! It’s hardly rocket science, but you would think it was by the number of men who get this wrong. Love is spelt T-I-M-E. Even Christian men have their own versions of getting this wrong in church. Over the years, the number of marriages I have seen unnecessarily come under strain and kids neglected by their fathers due to Christian “ministries” that were, in my view, prioritised wrongly. My heart goes out to the single mum of 4 kids who turns up at church in search of help, takes one look at the riotous behaviour of the ‘church’ kids and says to herself “I’m not sticking around here, you guys need help” never to darken the door of the church again. If we are to truly live efficient lives for God, may we learn to prioritise our families with that rarest of commodities called ‘time.’ May we master the gentle art of walking as men who are wise, and may we remain away from the darkness, always in God’s light and that way, like the expert judo practitioner, may we floor our enemy the Devil as we make properly efficient use of our time.
“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” Ephesians 5:15-16
Image credit: Tim Tebow Foundation via Unsplash
