I draw a lot of parallels to my Christianity from martial arts. I know full well that martial arts is a limited analogy, as is anything you relate to Christianity, because anything that is not a complete following of Christ falls short. That being said, I remember at one of my promotion tests I was sparring my last round against my teacher. I was exhausted, I was doing all I could just to keep my hands up, I had aced tests before this one because I had a natural affinity for the art. However, now I was reaching a level where I was really being challenged. In the last two minutes of this two hour long test I didn't think I was going to make it. Was my karate teacher sympathetic? No, because he knew what I was capable of and he was going to push me past where I thought my limits were. So he pummeled me around the room and he knocked me to the floor at one point. I looked up at him expecting to be let up, but he wasn't letting me. He looked down at me and said all too seriously, "you have to get out of this." I kicked and fought my way back up, I even stood my ground at one point and delivered some of the hardest punches I ever threw. In all reality, he could have went all out and really not allowed me to get back up and beat me to pulp, but that wasn't the point of the test. Afterwards, I collapsed and a week later (when the swelling went down) when I went back to practice I knew more what I was capable of. Is God a brutal karate teacher who beats you down? DEFINITELY not. Does He allow you to struggle knowing better than you what your limits are and the best way for you to grow? Yes. In a discussion with someone, the point was made to me that the earlier revival of the church was somewhat of a twitch and that when we use our gifts often times it's a twitch or glimpse of the potential that God has bestowed on us. After throwing hundreds of techniques in karate day after day after a while it became a reflex when you went to apply it in sparring. However, as much as you practiced the techniques on a conscious level alone you had to have the experience of sparring, of getting hit (a lot) and then as you continued to practice alone and went back to spar the nervousness slowly went away and you were doing things that you didn't know you could. Obviously, karate depends on only what I can do, which is where it falls short. Christianity depends on God can do in, with, and through you. We have to pray and read our bible, we have to practice with our spiritual weapons on a conscious level hundreds of times day after day. That is when God works on us, that is where we hone our techniques, but we eventually have to get on the mat put up our hands and fight. Not fight in the marial arts sense against people, but against the ideas that are killing us. We can't go on the mat without having prepared and all our preparation is useless if we don't put it to the test. We have to fail, get pummeled, get back up, hit back, have victories but all the while trust that no matter what God is going to use it for our good (another plus to Christianity). Also, that the victory was already won on the cross, as long as we follow Christ we will have high highs and low lows but we will never fail as long as our eyes are laid on Him. I'm tired of practicing, I want to throw down. How about you?