Unleash Your Inner Warrior
The Way of a Warrior is based on humanity, love, and sincerity; the heart of martial valor is true bravery, wisdom, love, and friendship. Emphasis on the physical aspects of warriorship is futile, for the power of the body is always limited. My dear warrior, A warrior’s life is one that is given in service to others. It is not self-serving. A warrior lives to protect and defend others—not the self. That would simply be called self-defense. I have learned from the one who has gone before me that warriors take in a way that gives back to others, not a way that robs them or leaves them feeling empty or broken. A warrior protects, not only physically, but also emotionally and spiritually. A warrior is a protector of the entire person: body, heart and mind (or body, spirit and soul. Same thing, different languaging). How can a warrior take in a way that gives much? Take a look at your own life. How do you take? How do you give? It’s may or may not be something you’ve given much thought to.
If you are self-serving, (if you are a taker) you probably often think about the ways in which you can take, but give little thought to how your actions affect others or how you can give. You’ve probably taken from other people in ways that left them broken, empty or hurting. You’ve taken to their detriment. You have taken out of your own selfish motives, or out of your own blindness to their needs. You have taken because you put your needs above the other persons, and you left them to suffer in the aftermath of your destructive and forcible taking. (Shame on you). If you are a giver, you probably think more about giving to others than about taking anything for yourself. You think about others before you think of yourself (if you ever think of yourself at all). In fact, you often forget about yourself, and pour yourself into others, giving all you have until you are left empty and drained and bereft of life. You give to the point of exhaustion and then go about in a stupor for a time until you have recharged on your own and can give everything you have all over again, only to wind up in an exhausted stupor again. Neither of these two is healthy. One is to the other persons detriment, and the other is to your own. A warrior takes and gives simultaneously. A warrior takes for himself, but not without giving back to the other person for what they have taken. I find this is a particularly difficult concept to try to explain, and that is best left to the imagination (with you thinking: how can I take and give at the same time?) rather than giving point-for-point examples and leaving nothing for you to think up on your own. You need to figure out ways in which you can take and give back. Don’t always think in a straight line. – The Way of the Spear However, I will give some examples. When you take someone’s time, you give back by listening to their heart, their wants and needs, the desires of their hearts, their hurts and their suffering. When you ask them how they are, you take interest in what they have to say, and how they really are doing. This gives back to them. When you ask someone questions about things that are important to them or that they are well versed in and you take time to listen to them with great intent, you give them a sense of importance and you make them feel good. Even better, when you listen to them, you listen to what their needs are, and you quietly take note of those things so that you can actually give them those things (either immediately or at a later date). Those may be time, energy or a tangible item. Warriors act in support of one another. Warriors take so that they can conquer and dominate. However, a warrior must first conquer the self before he can truly conquer anything else. Doing this again involves taking. In the last few months, I have asked of the Holy Spirit what I have access to that I can take. I quickly found that there are things that God has already made available to us that we can take at any time. We do not have to cry and beg and wail like a widow to get those things. We quite literally just take them. The fruits of the spirit and rest are among the first of these. We have access to the fruits of the spirit and can take love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control at any given time, for any situation. I have learned to pray “God, I take peace right now. I take joy in this situation. I take self-control. I take rest and a calm spirit.” And I always find that fruit wash over me instantaneously and I can walk in that—until such time as I need to take it again. Sometimes that’s not for a few days, sometimes I have to take it again 5 minutes later. Once you have learned to take rest and the fruits of the spirit, and you have conquered the self, then taking from others changes immensely. It becomes stunningly beautiful. You will find that when you live from taking the fruits of the spirit, when you then take from others, they will find themselves astonished at how much you are actually giving. I found myself astonished this way in the past few months as a few people began to share their own wonder with me: I was told that when I take, I always give more than I have taken; that when I take, it is as though I am giving a double-portion back to them and I bless them tremendously. That has been my prayer, and it is my prayer for you. I am by no means perfect at this, and there are still relationships where I am learning to give as I take, and other relationships where I must learn not to deplete myself, but I my heart swells with joy knowing that I am growing in the right direction. My dear warrior, take in a way that gives back to others – not in a way that robs them, or leaves them empty or broken. You do not take to destroy them. You take to benefit them. You take so that they may have. You take to give. A warrior who merely takes for himself is not a warrior at all. A warrior is a protector, and is given in a life of service to others before himself. Luke 7:47 says “Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little.” Be a warrior who forgives much, loves much, and when he takes, gives more than he has taken. Do not take out of contempt, do not take to spite others, and please do not take to break the other person. Take in a way that gives. Take as a true warrior would. "Contempt is the weapon of the weak and a defense against one’s own despised and unwanted feelings." — Alice Miller Jouzai Senjou. Live in the battleground, Warrior Beloved ©Michèle Aimée, 2016
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