Battle Cry by Jason Wilson

Author:Jason Wilson [Wilson, Jason]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2021-07-22T00:00:00+00:00

It’s Okay to Be Dominant

I’ve trained in several martial arts since 1991, and my favorite by far is Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ). Initially, I was excited to learn how to defend myself effectively when taken to the ground in a fight, but soon I was even more intrigued at how BJJ aligned with so many key life and biblical principles.

How often will a man be down in life and need to get up before his circumstance, vices, or unresolved trauma beats him down again? According to King Solomon, “a righteous man falls seven times, and rises again” (Prov. 24:16).

So, my desire for learning BJJ was not to learn how to stay on the ground when in a fight, but how to arise physically when taken down by an attack or mentally when weighed down by a personal trial. Therefore, I tell the CATTA recruits to act as if the ground is four hundred degrees hot; the longer you stay down in a street fight, the more vulnerable you are to more threats from the attacker’s friends. And the longer you stay downtrodden in life, the more susceptible you are to depression or suicidal thoughts.

I started private lessons with my friend Tyrone Gooden, one of the most experienced BJJ black belts in Detroit. But since his school was far from my office, he suggested that I enroll in a BJJ school in my area to get experience grappling against multiple people. The 313 Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was the last school I would join before I completely dedicated my time to creating and finishing the CATTA’s curriculum. I became good friends with one of the owners/coaches and Marcelo Garcia black belt, Zander Heinen.

Unlike the other martial arts I’ve studied where you can execute your techniques without someone actually trying to stop you, BJJ commands its practitioners to fight one another with real resistance. So, passivity has no place in it, there is never a “day off,” and you work hard in every class. I was sold! Physically, I would know for sure if my techniques worked, and internally, I would wage war to keep my soul under control. Yah used BJJ to purge my passivity completely.

One day Yah prompted me to subdue everyone I rolled (sparred) with. This is a rare accomplishment in any good BJJ school, especially for a three-stripe white belt. Talk about an inner war! Since I’m a teacher at heart, I caught myself showing one of the men I rolled with what he was doing wrong and then teaching him how to beat me. How crazy is that? Believe it or not, I still managed to tap him out before the buzzer sounded, ending the round.

As I took a moment to gather myself before meeting my next opponent, I heard Yah say, “Jason, as long as you stay passive when I need you to be powerful, you will never fulfill My will.” I then remembered how Jacob relentlessly wrestled an angel of Yah until he was blessed (Gen. 32:24–32). I said to myself, “Passivity is not of Yah,” and tapped out everyone I rolled with.

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