Jesus and My Black Belt Test

Here’s one of my readers’ favorite posts. I’m taking the week off blogging. This girl needs a break.

The weirdest thing happened at my black belt test.

Okay, I gotta pause.

You may not know I do karate. Now you do.

A karate-chopping, hiiiiiya-ing Christian chick? Yeah, guilty as charged.

I got into karate many years ago for two reasons: to learn self-defense and to do an activity with my then 10 year old. We both earned orange belts, she stopped, and I continued kicking, blocking and punching my little heart out.

“Chuck Norra.” This is what you may call me. Hey, Norris is a Christian and a black belt (a gazillion times over). . .why not follow in his step-punches?

Well, the day of my black belt test came.

And I proclaimed Christ.

You see, at a black belt test, near the conclusion, the ten or so testers pepper us almost-newbies with questions.

And, me oh my oh, the Qs to me came out of an evangelism playbook by God.

“Lucy, what is the most important thing you learned about respect?” asked the judo-jujitsu guy at the far right.

I answered something like, “I learned a greater respect of the unseen spiritual war all around us. In karate, there is an unseen enemy just as there is in the world. This unseen enemy is evil. He wants to steal and kill and destroy. Through karate I saw these parallels more clearly.”

Then a question from the Kunfu Panda lookalike in the fourth chair from the left.

“How have you incorporated the philosophy of ying and yang in your karate?”

I hesitated,

breathed deep,

and spoke my heart.

My voice quavered.

“This is a difficult question,” I began. “I know how to answer the question the right away — balance and all that [the "all that" being anti-Christianity"] – but I don’t believe it.

“So I’ll tell you what I do believe.

“I asked my orginal sensei if I could use nail polish to paint over the ying-yang symbol on the school patch. He said, ‘Yes.’ So I painted it yellow then drew the Cross on the circle. My strength comes from Christ.”

For a second, I thought my answer might doom me. No black belt for Lucy?! After seven years of training?

Then I remembered that the founders of my style of karate, begun in the 1940s in Hawaii, were all Christians and even posted a prayer “in the name of Jesus.”

I sensed peace. I felt purpose.

I figured that maybe just maybe my test had nothing to do with my becoming a black belt afterall.

Maybe just maybe the test was this: Would I proclaim Christ in front of 100 people with my reputation on the line?

What do you think?

Please take a moment, leave a comment and “vote” – ”Yes, this was a faith test” or “No, it was black belt test only.”

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