I love this short film. The blood, sweat, and tears are something that all weightlifters must come to embrace. I fully identify with Donny Shankle in this film. I can't tell you how much time I have spent sitting on my butt after a missed lift, yelling in frustration, and wanting to give up. I love the part where he is about to give up, has his singlet off, and is unwrapping his thumb. He takes one last look at the bar, and decides that this is a battle worth fighting for, and today he will win, no matter what it takes. Life can be like that.
"Spiritual bravery is cultivated when we take risks of faith. This is the greatest bravery, as far as I'm concerned. Think of the many martyrs, like Polycarp going to his execution. He had been warned in a vision that he would be burned at the stake, but he would not let fear seize him. Refusing to confess Caesar as Lord, the old saint went to his death willingly, even to the point of telling his tormentors it would not be necessary to nail him to the stake, that he would remain there by the grace of God. For he heard a voice from heaven say, 'Play the man', and play the man he did.
The heart of a Warrior says, 'I will not let evil have its way. There are some things that cannot be endured. I've got to do something. There is freedom to be had.' The Warrior nature is fierce, and brave, ready to confront evil, ready to go into battle. This is the time for a man to stop saying 'Why is life so hard?' He takes the hardness as the call to fight, to rise up, take it on. he learns to 'set his face like a flint' as Jesus had to do to fulfill his life's great mission (Isaiah 50:7).
It may take time, and require repeated provocation, but eventually a man must come to realize that there are certain things in life worth fighting for. Take anything good, true, or beautiful upon this earth and ask yourself, 'Can this be protected without a fight?'"
-J. Eldredge
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