Your Cornerman

At a recent kickboxing tournament my son was fighting in I grew more interested watching the cornermen coaching the fighters than watching the actual fights.  These were my first live, organized fights to attend, I had never been so close to action.  

Sometimes things get rough in the corner...

Fighting is analgous to life in so many ways.  There is nothing more raw than entering a ring and knowing that you alone will contend against one man.  It's not a team sport inside the ring, one man will dominate and one man will be defeated.  

Here's what struck me about the relationship between the fighter and his "corner".

The cornerman;

Knocked down...his corner coaching him to get up!

• wants you to win! He's invested in you in every way, has spent hours helping you perfect your skills and grow your ability.
• has a vantage point that the you cannot possess.  You have to trust that he sees and knows the truth about what you are and are not doing to win.
• is soley focused on you; nothing distracts him and you are his singular mission.
• has no time to mince words.  In the 60 seconds between rounds he tells you exactly what you need to do to win the fight.  
• is not trying to get you to like him, but soley wants you to survive and win the match.
• may have been a fighter, or maybe not.  One thing he knows however is what it takes to win in your fight.

Here's what I noticed about the fighters in relationship to their corners.

Cornerman giving quick instruction...

• they were in total dependence on their cornermen; they trusted them.
• they submitted to them, they understood their need for advice and physical support.
• there was no time for dialogue, the fighters listened to their coaches.
• most importantly, the fighter ask's for this type of relationship, he needs and wants a tough cornerman.

There was a moment in taking these images that I became envious of the fighters.  These men had the total attention of one man who at that moment knew what needed to be done and was invested in them to win.  How many guys in the ring of life have that; most want it desperately but don't know how or where to find it.  I contend that this kind of relationship is found in authentic brotherhood of Christian men who are willing to barenuckle each other with the truth.  Not because they want to dominate but because they love them and want them to win in life.

Your corner wants you to win!

Spiritually, for Christians, the Holy Spirit is our Counselor, and cornerman.  He's always coaching us toward winning in Christ and tells us the truth of ourselves and God.

Thanks for visiting.

Dad Champions

This is one of my all-time favorites.  I first learned about Dick Hoyt father of Rick who was born with Cerebral Palsey years ago at a PromisKeepers event.  When he was young, Rick told his dad that he wanted to run a 5K race and that was all his dad needed to hear, they did....and never stopped.  Rick told his dad that, "when he ran races, he didn't feel disabled".  Again, that was all dad needed to hear.  Now in his 60's Dick is still running...and cycling...and swimming with Rick.  Asked now years later saying simply, "I just wanted to be the best Dad for my family".

Such rare nobility in a dad, but not really so.  Nobility is seen and felt everyday, possibly in smaller, but no less important ways as dad's sacrifice, work and deny themselves to love, provide and bless their families.  In small acts and large, dads are and become champions each day.  But no one is following them around with video camera, highlighting these acts (oh, but Tiger get's press when he torpedoes his family).

The other aspect of this video that you'll receive is the fatherhood of God.  Whether your father memories are wonderful or sour, when the music combines with the images, please drink in the unconditional love of your heavenly father who loves you...for you, and is running, riding and swimming...pulling you all the way to himself.  We are all (spiritually) helpfuless like Rick, we can't do anything to change the condition we were born into...total selfishness and sin.  BUT, our father is our champion and hero...getting us to the finish line by his amazing grace provided through Jesus Christ.

My sweet Mattie has Downs Syndrome and I can't wait to be his champion!

Trying Something New

Caroline learned to ride her bike today.

Most nights when I'm tucking-in Caroline to bed she asks me the question, "Daddy do you have to work tomorrow?", and then I usually tell her yes, sweetie I do. This time, afterward I asked her, "Is there something you wanted to do?" and she said that she wanted to learn to ride her bike without training wheels. I told her that we would do it when I came home from work.

Well, I learned a few things from this small but significant experience that I had to write down before I lost them.

• Caroline realized that she needed a coach (and who better than Daddy) to teach her to do something that she'd never done. There was a gap between her current abilitiy (riding a bike with training wheels) and what she really desired the ability to do (ride with no training wheels). Most important, she wasn't ashamed to ask for help.
  
• At first, she needed to draw-up courage, as she wasn't able to ride without my holding her in place, she was afraid to fall.
  
• If my kids can't seem to get over a fear of trying something new I tell them, "Just do it afraid". No matter how hard we try, sometimes we just can't get the fear of failure to go away and often times we think, "I'll do it when the fear goes away". But what we can do instead is simply embrace the fact that the fear may not go away until we're on the other side of accomplishment.
  
• Being a mountain biker I knew this one well, but I realized it again with Caroline. In biking (and with life), you can't focus your eyes on where you don't want to go (cause you'll go there), you have to focus where you want to go. Try it sometime, it's true.
  
• After about 5 minutes of trying she thought she had it and exclaimed, "this is easy dad!" The contrast between that moment and 6 minutes ago was extreme - it's amazing how much confidence she gained in those few minutes, her sails were full of wind.
  
• Well she had it - a little, but she also had the curse of competence. What she didn't have was the turning and stopping parts. Don't we love to quickly think we've learned it all,...but there's always more.
  
• As her coach I gained so much. I was able to enjoy recalling the day I was taught to ride my bike (and my dad teaching me) and then remembering all my other kids who I helped to learn to ride - the teacher always gets more than the student.

Enjoy it for yourself here