Fear of a Sword

     One of the things I realized about swordfighting while I was sparring with a Jared, a friend of mine, was how trying to slice and stab people with sticks goes against all human instincts.  A lot of the moves and tactics I've learned work on a person's natural reflexes or instinctual fears.  One of the first things I was taught was sword positions.  One position, where you lift your sword way above your head to bring all your strength down into a blow, is a very foolish move because it leaves your whole body exposed.  It's foolish, but it can also be very successful because it looks very intimidating, and I mean very intimidating.   When you see your opponent doing that, your automatic response it to duck or shy away, which only puts you in danger.  The correct response would be to move closer in and thrust at the opponents exposed body.  Jared did that exact move while sparring with me.  Now he's way taller and heavier than me, and as soon as I saw him do it, I knew I should move in closer, but the position I actually took was instinctual, away and down.  He missed, but I realized I missed to, missed an opportunity to go offensive.

Part of swordfighting is reteaching your mind how to react. 

I can't help but draw the biblical parallel.

     Our first instinct as faulted sinners is to be afraid, run and hide.  Where God tells us to face fear, fight and conquer.  Sounds epic, yes, but it's hard.  It goes against all that's inside us.  Reading God's word and meditating on His Scripture is the spiritual way to reteach your heart how to react.

   Sometimes you just need to just face your fear, grip your sword and change in when all you want to do is go defensive.  Yep, that's the biblical lesson I pulled from that one. 

This is the first part of a two part post on fears.  This one was on a sword topic and the next one is on a rose topic, so stay tuned, my fellows in arms!