So have I seen:
We will talk about spirit now. I do not mean some manner of ghost or soul. I mean the essence of a thing, the idea and attitude that shines through a person or an idea.
Allow me to present to you three brief stories.
When I was a younger man, I went driving with a friend who was also my brother in training. We shared the cuts and bruises, torn knuckles, and split lips of training. We shared a certain spirit with regard to effort that I hope to share with you.
I do not remember why the car stopped running. I do remember that it stopped running a few miles from our destination and at the foot of the hill. When the initial frustration of a coughing, choking engine passed, when we had taken our places for the push, when the depth of the task made itself clear, the spirit took hold of us.
I do not remember who said it first, but I remember a specific joy in the endeavor. “Imagine how much stronger we’ll get from pushing this car up that hill!” It was the chant that gave us joy as legs and lungs burned. The spirit, that training spirit, knew the ordeal was good for us, that joy would both help us finish and never resent the challenge.
When I was pursuing Seminary, here, I went to a variety of spiritual observances to learn. My favorite was a Circle of Witches not too far from my home who meet in a shed when the moon tells them. During one observance, people were invited to speak. A young woman, high school aged, began to speak on her troubles with school. She was doing quite well, but had taken on many challenges. She complained of the strain and the crowd responded with a mixture of pride and humor. She ended her say by saying, “So, those are my problems.”
A handful of voices rang out, almost in unison, “Ah, but think of how wise you will become!” There was laughter, and the young woman was reminded that she was loved and supported, and that this would pass. That spirit of training had the brothers and sisters there, and they gave it to her. I had not seen it in some time.
Again, there was joy in effort, joy in challenge.
More recently, I had dinner with a friend, wherein he told me a story about a hike he had taken with his young son. They went off their normal route to see something and got themselves turned around. My friend became upset. He became scared. Not for himself, mind you. Yes, they were lost, and it was winter, and they had very little water, but he was reasonably confident that he would be okay. But he had brought his small, vulnerable child. He had led his son astray and betrayed the trust of safety. And it was going to be dark in an hour.
His son noticed his distress, his anger at himself, and piped up, “It’s okay, Daddy. Now we get to be brave!”
We get to be brave.
The situation demanded a clear head, true, but for his son, above the necessity was the opportunity. His son had a spirit for training; he saw a chance to be brave that would ordinarily not present itself in his life. And he relished it.
Son shared the spirit with his father and they found the trail again. Perhaps they would have anyway, but they did it with a joy that comes from a recognition of gravity rather than from attempting to ignore it.
How strong we would become. How wise we would become. A chance to be brave, to learn what being brave feels like, to make it easier next time.
A spirit of effort, of training, of step after step on the Path. Life can be difficult for any of us. To be a Jedi involves a recognition that difficulty teaches, and that what we need generally lays on the other side of effort. To be a Knight means sometimes throwing yourself to the ordeal when service demands it.
What is facing you? What conflicts, what marathon efforts? What difficult choices?
The difficult words will stick in your throat. The sword will become heavy in your hand. The heavy iron plate will cleave to the earth. The words of a new text will resist your efforts to make meaning of them. The struggle that needs a clear head will shake your spine with frustration. What must happen next will hide itself behind smoke and your own anxiety.
I will never ask you to court tragedy, and I know that some experiences leave us gasping for breath and sense. But many of the everyday challenges we face serve us. There is wisdom to working with our challenges, rather than against them, allowing adversity to serve us.
And where adversity serves us, there should be recognition, gratitude, and joy! Morihei Ueshiba O-Sensei tells us to be grateful for our ordeals, even for unreasonable people, as these challenges are essential to training.
If you will accept it, allow me to share this spirit with you, to give you joy in your efforts, in the short-term defeats that teach so generously. Do not begrudge the life that makes you strong, the life that makes you a better Knight.
The Force is with us.
