Life, Truth and Freedom

Jiu-jitsu makes a great example for of freedom. You see in the beginning stages of jiu-jitsu you are free as a bird. The first time you grapple, there is nothing but the freedom to do as you feel. In turn, you begin to learn that what you feel is wrong! The instructor says don't turn your back, don't push me there, don't do this or that and you do it anyway because it feels right. Next thing you know you turned your back and got choked. You pushed there and got armbared. You grabbed here and got swept and armbared again. So now you begin to freeze up. Everything you do is wrong and leads to your defeat. What now? Where is the freedom?

It's gone! Now you learn the right ways to do it and slowly your freedom begins to make a comeback. You can move again. Eventually all those things you did before are leaving you. Your not turning your back, pushing here or there. Your doing the right moves! The more you grapple and drill and learn the more freedom you gain. Your conscience begins to think like jiu-jitsu and not like Joe tuff guy anymore. A Zen poem quotes

Before I studied Zen
Moutains were mountains and rivers were rivers
After I studied Zen a little while
Mountain were no longer mountains and river no longer rivers
After mastering Zen
Mountains were mountains once again and rivers once again rivers

This is jiu-jitsu. What was became no more until, what was, becomes what is.

There is a big sense of freedom in that. It's wonderfull actually! My mind isn't trapped anymore or held back by right and wrong or this way that way. Learning technique is a huge part of jiu-jitsu but in the end letting it go is even bigger. Technique trains you in the way but the way frees you from technique.

I have found it is the same in life. The beauty of life is spoken in one word, Christ. Christ has set me free. The more I learn about Christ the more free I become. It would seem that being a Christian means no fun for you, but it's not true. It would seem that you couldn't possible enjoy life while living under a law. Well the truth is that the whole point is that Christ freed us from the law. Those who are not under Christ are under the law. Wheither you follow or believe it or not, the law has power. Does this mean I am free to sin? Absolutely not, but it does mean Im free from sin. My sin no longer has any power over me. Christ unchained me from all that holds me back from serving Him and living life to the fullest. The law came to train us in and convince us of the Way (Christ). Now that the Way has come we are free from the law. In Christ the law is dead and that which is dead has no power.

In Romans 7, Paul talkes about a women and her husband. He states that a women married to her husband is bound to the law of her husband as long as he lives. The husband the same. If her husband dies she is released from the law of her husband. So then if she marries another man while her husband is alive, she is an adulteress. But if her husband dies she is free from that law and not an adulteress if she marries another man. In the same way, we are free from the law which is dead in Christ, and now free to be with Him who was raised from the dead, that we should bear fruit to God. Free from the law, free from the bondage of sin and given life and freedom in Christ.