“For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” ~ Romans 8:13

Recently, I was reading a book by a Jiu Jitsu artist and author, Chris Matakas. It was in this reading that I came across an analogy for spiritual truth, in that I was not expecting to receive. As I grow in this beautiful martial art, I am increasingly learning the importance of “position over submission.” Simply put, this means that it is important to keep yourself within a positional safe posture and learning to “live” here before looking to submit another person. This position over submission mentality is also for your well-being, not just for submissions.

Chris Matakas elaborates that when an individual is in a good position, they can look to “kill the monster when it is small.” This simply means removing the possibility of getting submitted by first looking to stop the things that set this submission up. Matakas states that dealing with a problem, the best fix is to stop the problem from occurring in the first place. He likened this to a person in a mythological world who stumbles upon a dragon’s egg and is faced with two choices. He could a) let the egg alone b) destroy the egg. The egg itself has the potential to become a dragon, and in that regard is a dragon. This is just as someone who grabs your collar to initiate a choke has a choke, unless limited by your actions.

This analogy resonated profoundly with me, first in how I view my growth as a Jiu Jitsu practitioner, but also spoke volumes to how the man/woman of God is called to pursue spiritual living. If you kill a monster in life while it is young, it will not be possible for it to haunt your spiritual well-being. If you do not click the enticing browser pop-up, you will not get addicted to pornography. If you do not hang around people who will bring you to wrath, you will not be angry and sin as a result. If you do not ignore your spouse, you will be less likely to have marital problems.

But practical Christian living is not only defined by what you do not do, but also by what you do, which derives from who you are. If you have doubts in your faith, it is best practice to go to the Word of Truth to see that which is true (Acts 17:11). If you can not help but worry about your finances, drop to your knees and fill your time with prayer instead.

Whatever you do when the potential for sin arises, kill it quickly by avoiding it and then filling your life with good things (2 Timothy 2:15-16). It is when you do not practice this that a ghost choke appears and strangles your joy and suffocates the carotid supplying your peace.

The philosophy of killing life’s monster young is applicable in many settings, but can be used powerfully to change how we act against our sins, something we all should desire.

Works Cited

Matakas, Chris. 5 Rules for White Belts. Independently Published, 2020.