What do you do when the thing that worked once before, no longer works?
A central part of the Adventurous Way is understanding the root problem in the self. At the root of the human condition is the drive to validate the self through human means. We search for something to answer the underlying question. Are we good or evil? This question is at the center of the Garden of Eden. It is the fundamental of all human suffering.
We see this played out over and over in human form. This video is a short documentary on several MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) stars rise and fall from glory. It captured my attention because it documents both the drive and the tension of that search. It shares the brutal tension of attaining it and then losing it. We long to get back to glory. The drive for glory is instinctive in the human condition. Something deep within longs for validation, the applause, the roar of the crowd. We know that the answer has to be “good”.
Yet what inevitably arises as we reach that glory, attained by our own imagination, hard work, and circumstance, is the moment of realization. If you watch the video, at 4:13 Mirko Cro Cop, one of the best MMA fighters ever, finally gains the belt. But instead of illumination, he is overwhelmed with sadness and emotion. As we watch the Olympics, we seem the same thing. In many ways, we don’t really know what to do with our moment of glory. It captivates us as much as fulfills us. We’ve spent so much of our lives wanting something, we’re completed unprepared for what it means to have something.
But the tension in human attained glory, is the need to hold onto that glory. MMA provides a great moment because it has the “belt”, a symbol of validation from the world around the fighters. And once the belt has been attained, the fighter must defend it with everything he has. But the drive to gain the glory is different than defending the glory. The motivation is not the same. Deep down, every fighter knows that the day WILL come when the belt will be gone.
At the end of the video, we see the upstarts take the former champions down. The once glorious but false sense meets its end on the blood soaked canvas. The upstarts now hold the drive to attain glory, fashioned in the fist that reigns down on the each fighters former self.
What Jesus offers in the Adventurous Way is an entirely different path, one that removes the need for attaining glory. Instead of assuming he needed glory, Jesus assumes he already has it. It’s not something to be grasped or manufactured. It’s to be embraced. Glory is nothing more than validation. It’s the root of “good”, the words of the Father reigning down pleasure in the form of a dove. And by assuming he already has it, he has no need to search for it. He hasn’t attained it because of anything he’s done. It is bestowed from above. And what this does is frees him to be human. It releases him for the fundamental problem of suffering. It opens him up to be love for those around him.
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If you are looking for a deeper way of living, one unhinged from suffering, consider the Adventurous Way.
