On the practice field, we put our bodies through “everything” so that our hearts can take it all. Yet here is exactly where things are amiss. Here is where my “twisted vision” hopefully makes clear what has become distorted: The only way for my heart to endure what lies ahead is not by hardening it, but by softening my heart. The vice of sloth (laziness) actually hardens the heart while the virtue of diligence, softens the heart of man, making it agile. Remember that the heart is a muscle…and like any muscle, the heart is honed in discipline.
The purpose of the practice field is discipline, in order to temper the tension within, to establish discipline so that sons may become brothers, a band of brothers holding one other on the line, conditioning our hearts. When diligence tempers or softens the heart of man, his words and actions become the instincts or habits of a gentleman.
So if I think that I can become “tough” through hardening my heart, I will become a tyrant out of fear, for such walls surround to hide weaknesses not to protect strength. If on the other hand, I know that I can show strength with the suppleness of my heart, walls become useless and my heart flexes as my body adapts.
Will my heart become brittle as reality chips away the façade of manhood? Or will my heart beat tirelessly even to the point of bleeding like a Christian man?
Posts
