Last Fall my wife and I were discussing which sports to get our two youngest sons into, considering our oldest son and daughter were already engaged at their local high school and junior high respectively. It wasn’t long before we decided on allowing them to try Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. As I understood it, a lot of Army Combatives were modeled after BJJ and I found that form of self defense very effective, regardless of size. So, we signed them up.
It wasn’t long after signing the kids up that I got the bug, and decided I wanted to give it a try. Even if it was only for a few months. My Pastor had recently given his local gym a three month go, and I figured, why not? I was attending the gym for about three weeks and was mentally defeated. Well, physically defeated too, but that wasn’t what hurt the most. I legitimately thought I had a good grasp on combatives and figured I’d be able to hold my own and at least survive. As so many other brothers and sisters quickly discovered, I wasn’t as ready for hand-to-hand combat as I thought. Considering that I had paid for the month, I figured I’d close out the last week and then call it quits. Then in the way that I usually receive clear direction from the Holy Spirit, I was told that I was to attend this BJJ gym until the year 2030. I was floored… pun intended.
I prayed for clarity and understanding, and the Lord revealed that He wanted me to build community there and support the leadership in any way I could. After starting my fourth week, having already received this instruction, I was discouraged. I wondered why my Heavenly Father would want me to attend something for so long, especially if I wasn’t any good at it – No response. It was on the fifth week that I began praying, asking that if Jesus wanted me to attend BJJ, that I would really appreciate if He blessed me with His encouragement. On the sixth week, I spoke to my Professor (lead instructor for most BJJ Gyms) Professor Vincent and let him know that attending BJJ was now part of my five-year plan and that barring any catastrophic event, that I would be attending until the year 2030. He chuckled and replied with something like, “yeah, that’s cool. I have a five-year plan too.” He didn’t really lay out what his five-year plan was, but I was certain I wasn’t part of it.
Joshua 1:9 says, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
After about three months, I received my first, and to date, only stripe. By then I was given an opportunity to help the gym with their Halloween Party and started to build decent friendships with some of the regular guys at the gym, and my wife had done the same with the ladies. Around February of 2025 I felt like I began to gain a decent understanding of the sport, and around June I felt like things started to click. Around this time, I began to see the parallels God had been subtly highlighting for me along the way.
Lessons for White Belts & Christians Alike
Know your Base – Understanding your base isn’t just about knowing how to start a match – it’s a physical and mental place you can return to if you need to reset mentally. You don’t need a referee or a clock to get you there. Given enough time, you learn how to get there on your own and essentially reset for the ensuing battle ahead. Knowing your base also insists that you know what position suits your skills, body type, and will give you the best chances to defeat your opponent. Knowing your base helped me see that the world doesn’t come in waves, one thing after another. It comes all at once and for an indefinite amount of time, like a hurricane. The world doesn’t wait for you to pay off the last mechanics bill, before letting your car get a flat tire. The world doesn’t wait for you to get that dream job, before you have to begin paying back your student loans. And lastly, there is never a perfect time for you or anyone you love to fall sick and be admitted to the hospital. The battle continues, and if you don’t understand how to get back to your base, you are essentially just being tossed to and fro from the wind, blinded by the rain, and deafened by the thunder. There is no referee or clock to get you back to base. Build your life on the cornerstone. In Matthew 7:24-27, King Jesus says it like this, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” Earlier from the same book of Matthew 21:42, “Jesus said to them, ‘Have you never read in the Scriptures: The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord’s doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?” Just like in BJJ, knowing your base in life is crucial if you want to survive and thrive.
Grips – I also began to see the relationship between holding on and letting go. In BJJ you are wise to understand strong grips on your opponent – not just to attack, but to defend. But it’s another level of wisdom to understand when you should let go. So often times in life, I have held on for dear life, thinking that it’s what I’m supposed to do, when in reality God is allowing me to let go. Sometimes He’s not even simply allowing, He’s commanding me to let go. I got it in my head somewhere along the way, that if God set me on a path, that I must stay on that path, hell or high water until the very end. But this isn’t the character of our Father. There isn’t one instance in the Bible that I can find, where God set anyone on one geographical path and insisted, they stay on it until they died. Neither did God ever insist that any one of the prophets or apostles not be willing to receive new instructions from Him. In Isaiah 6:8 it says, “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here I am! Send me.’” As the Lord continued to work through Isaiah, He didn’t just send him to one place to prophesy to one person. He prophesied to at least three kings and countless fellow jews. At one point God even, commanded Isaiah go barefoot for a period of three years! God is shown to give continuous guidance, new direction, and sometimes He even asks us to do things that are uncomfortable. From this brief study of only one prophet, it’s clear that God will sometimes say “hold on!”, and other times He will say “let go!” Be ready to listen and respond or end up with a few broken or sprained knuckles in BJJ, and unnecessary hardships in your life. Just like Isaiah needed to adjust to each new calling, in BJJ I had to learn that that you must adjust to every new situation. If you continue to execute the same move, or even if you can tap someone out, continuously do it in the same way, you’re not really learning BJJ, you’re just trying to stroke your ego.
Push Pull – In BJJ you will face people who are strong, skilled, fast, flexible, and every now and then, you come across someone who is just amazing and you get tapped pretty quick. But as one of the Black Belts who dropped by for a clinic stated, “every movement is an opportunity”. His name is Geronimo and outside of having an awesome name, he was an even more awesome fighter. He was very amicable, and I am grateful he didn’t immediately pummel me, but rather he moved with me and let me work. He gave me feedback during the match and let me exercise the guidance he had given. If your opponent is pushing on you, Pull! If your opponent is pulling, Push! But be ready to respond because if they are skilled, they are going to do the exact same thing. Professor Vincent said it like this, “Think of the moves like Lego blocks. The more blocks you learn, the more you can link together.” If you learn how to push when someone pulls, but they take your pull and throw you over their head, then you are likely rolling with a more experienced fighter. But if they pull, and you push, then they pull harder, but then you use that momentum to sweep, you are learning. You have effectively put five Lego blocks together. 1) Recognized the pull. 2) Assessed whether or not a part of your body was trapped or could become trapped. 3) Decided to push. 4) Recognized their counter. 5) Responded to their counter and maneuvered your body in a more favorable position. If you understand that every situation is an opportunity to counter. If you are pushed, you can pull, and if you’re pulled you can push.
Sometimes in life it seems like everyone around you is winning, and all you’re doing is falling behind. Social media has you comparing accomplishments, perceived wealth, health, and stability. Sometimes it feels like you’re being pushed down, and you don’t know what to do. If you’ve been paying attention, at the very least, you understand that you can return to base. From base you will have an opportunity to assess what is going on and come up with a quick game plan. Remember, life doesn’t give you rest rounds, so you have to know how to take them. When the world begins to push you down, you should begin to pull on the anointing. I’m not just talking about a passive pull like you’re pulling up your socks, but I mean begin to violently pull down the blessings from Heaven. In Matthew 11:12 Jesus says, “From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” Jesus wasn’t just talking about the attacks on heaven, He was speaking about the spiritual posture we must maintain throughout this life – that if we want the blessings from heaven and to come into a deeper relationship with God our Father, then we must pursue it with everything we’ve got. Likewise, when gravity begins to pull you down, push up, or lift up, your praise to the Heavens! This truth is reflected in scripture where in Psalms 134:2 it says, “Lift up your hands to the holy place and bless the Lord!” Don’t allow the forces of this world to be what moves you, but be the agent, empowered by Jesus, which forces the world to move.
It’s Backwards – After I began to understand positioning, I quit holding on to everything for dear life and busting up my knuckles, and after I had a good understanding of when to push and when to pull I started to see that I had to do almost the exact opposite of what my body wanted to do to properly respond. Let me explain. If you are ever shoved down and land face down, the last natural thing your body wants to do is turn and face the thing that shoved you. The natural response, especially if you feel like the person that shoved you is a legitimate threat, is to ball up and maybe even cover your face. BJJ insists you do the opposite, and while doing the opposite, they kindly request that if you are being shoved down from the back, that you need to fall in a way that prevents as much damage as possible, to grab a hold of the other person if possible, and lastly to turn around and face your opponent. One more example to try and prove this point, if someone is behind you and choking you, it seems natural to try and pull away from them or if you’re standing maybe even fall down to try and get away. This simply doesn’t work. BJJ asks that you do your best to break the grip on your neck, to fight to turn and face your opponent, and as soon as possible to put a body part between your neck and the choking extremity and eventually get a leg or arm between you and your opponent’s body. It’s backwards.
So, after my few short months of getting tapped out, I have learned that if my mind naturally tells my body to do something, that I don’t immediately trust this inclination. Rather I do my best to find base (yes, even while getting submitted you can find a base), assess if a push, pull, drop, or turn is something that can help, and then I act on that assessment – even if it turns out to be wrong, it’s better than simply responding to the crashing waves and being something that is constantly moved by nature. I have learned how to hold my ground and furthermore I have learned that by fighting back, even if it isn’t the best response, that I can create change. I can be a force of nature too. In the New Testament Jesus gives His sermon on the mount. It is in these passages and many others, that we get a glimpse of the ‘Upside Down Kingdom’. In Mark 10:31 Jesus says, “But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” And in Matthew 23:11-12 He states, “The greatest among you shall be your servant. Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.” Similar to BJJ, these words were very confusing to me at first. How can the last be first, and the first last? Why would Jesus exalt the humble and bring down the proud? Even though we weren’t explicitly taught that people with more wealth are more important, it is an easy assumption to make and something even my youngest children understood from an early age. That didn’t come from me, or at least I hope it didn’t. Why is Jesus going around telling me that people that are persecuted are happy (see Matthew 5:10-12). Should I not want to be rich, and should I try and be persecuted? It didn’t make sense, and sometimes it still doesn’t. But just like in BJJ, this is why I don’t trust what my mind naturally wants to do. I fall back on training, and for my life I fall back on God’s promises. He doesn’t demand that we understand everything in the Bible, but in Deuteronomy 6:5 He does say, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” And if you truly love someone, you truly trust them.
Rest and Recovery – BJJ has come with its fair share of bumps and bruises. I’ve had a few minor injuries and a couple that sidelined me for weeks—but thankfully nothing requiring a hospital visit. But I began to see a pattern between not resting well, not recovering well, and injuries. When I don’t get enough sleep and I try and power through the day and attend an evening class, not only am I barely paying attention to our instructions, but I am also poorly executing them which have resulted in me getting hurt. Training for BJJ, even though I know I am not going to be a professional fighter, demands that I take my physical fitness seriously. I am very intentional about hydration, electrolyte intake, protein and carbs intake, and most importantly rest. If I am exhausted from lack of sleep, or even if it’s just been an unusually hard day, I have learned to pass. Now I’m not talking about being a little tired. We have a saying in my house, “if you’re tired, do it tired”. I’m talking about being legitimately past the point of exhaustion when you shouldn’t be driving. If you are exhausted you need to take a break and if you are consistently too tired to train on a regular basis, you need to make a change. Another thing we say in my house is that sometimes when I say change, I don’t mean a gradual lifestyle change – I mean radical shift that starts now. If you are consistently training tired, not only are you missing out on valuable instruction, but you are putting yourself at risk of getting injured or worse, hurting someone else. I think it’s worth repeating. If you are too tired to drive, you shouldn’t be fighting, it’s just not safe. Likewise, if you discover that you are consistently “too tired” to train, then you need to make a commitment and make a radical shift. Commit to rest and begin preparing for your training with the mindset of an athlete.
This may not be a surprise at this point, but this happened in reverse order for me. I had to learn how to rest from Church, not BJJ. Not even after 22 years of being in the Army and serving in multiple Combat Zones. No, I began to take rest seriously because my lead Pastor insisted that I do so. I had a hard time with it at first. I didn’t realize until way later in my walk with Christ that I had an unhealthy relationship with work. I was using work as a mechanism to avoid or escape the responsibilities of my day-to-day life or facing the things I didn’t want to face. If I was at work, I guess I thought I didn’t have to deal with it. I didn’t have to worry about building community, spending time with my family, discipling the men God had put in my life. I didn’t have to do anything because I was working. I was in an endless cycle of being “too tired” to do things. I had this ridiculous excuse. I am too tired to do anything, or at least do it well. Similar to when I was going to BJJ tired. I would probably be way better at BJJ if I wasn’t so tired. I know how ridiculous it sounds, but when I was in it, I couldn’t see it. Okay, back to my lead pastor insisting I take a day off each week – Here’s an extract from our culture commandments, “Observing the Sabbath is a sacred commitment to rest, rejuvenation and a reminder of God’s sovereignty. We dedicate one day each week as holy, embracing the restorative gift it brings. Hebrews 4:9, Exodus 20:8, Isaiah 56:2, Ezekiel 20:12, Mark 3:1-6” You can see the Biblical principle of observing the sabbath, but if you are wise, you can also begin to apply this principle to every area of your life. Observing the sabbath doesn’t mean you’re lazy and afraid of work. It means you are resting well so that when you are at work you are way more productive. Likewise, getting rest and drinking water isn’t just something that helps as you train BJJ, it’s crucial if you want to grow as an athlete.
Whether you’re learning to return to your base, knowing when to grip or let go, choosing to push or pull, acting contrary to your instincts, or simply learning to rest, these are all part of the discipleship walk. BJJ hasn’t just trained my body, it’s been used by God to train my soul. I acknowledge that I am not some expert and that I have a long road ahead of me, considering I am only 10 months into my five-year commitment, but I hope that you can identify the parallels of training BJJ and your walk with our Lord and Savior, King Jesus. That if you can take the time to hear His voice, to respond to His call on your life. That you can face this world, not just as an NPC in someone else’s story, but as a force of change, walking in your God-given authority as an ambassador of Heaven. Let me leave you with the Great Commission—a final charge that reminds us we are never alone in this fight of faith, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19.
If no one told you today, I love you. I love you because King Jesus loves you. You are worthy of that love. You are special, you are important, and you have a great calling on your life.
Leaders Check 