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What’s the weekly mettle maker?
Training tips and educational info in support of our free programs, that’s what! What’s mettle? Mettle is, “The ability to meet a challenge or persevere under demanding circumstances; determination or resolve.” Want to cultivate your rough ‘n’ tumble mettle? Complete one of our 100 Feats!
Mettle maker #470: Orientation
This donors-only video is relevant to the topic. You can watch if if you support our charity for just $5.99/month.
American Rough ‘n’ Tumble began in the Southern Virginia backcountry during the Colonial Era. It is an amalgam of the fighting styles brought to America by colonists from all over the world, blended with the mayhem-managing methods of indigenous tribes, cops, coal miners and carnies, soldiers and sailors, lumberjacks, so on.
In order to fight like the old-timers, we need to try and approach the world, as much as possible, in the way the old-timers did. Our program includes old-time fitness, outdoor skills, and lifeways. For example, this past week I ended a session with a compass exercise. I put a little flag in the ground to mark our starting point. As a group, we used a compass to orient us due North, spotted a landmark, and walked twenty paces. Then we stopped, took another reading, and walked twenty paces due East. We repeated this exercise to South and West. In theory, if our readings and our pacing were careful and correct, we should’ve walked a perfect square. If we did our job, we’d end up right where we started.
We were off by a two paces. How could we have been more accurate? We could’ve measured our steps better, chosen our landmarks more carefully, and so on. Meditating on the location of the flag wouldn’t have helped. And that’s the way life is. Life isn’t as much about what you, but rather how you do it. If you orient yourself properly you can reach any destination your choose. This is why “goal-setting” is only useful to a point. Anybody can visualize a goal. Attitude and orientation are far harder and more critical.
There is also a lesson in the compass about faith — see this week’s homily below. And there is another one about being centered. For that one, see the video above.
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Homily for the Nineteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time 8/10/25 – Father Mitch
Readings: Wisdom 18:6-9, Psalm 33:1, 12, 18-19, 20-22, Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19, Luke 12:32-48
Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19 World English Bible
1 Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen. 2 For by this, the elders obtained approval.
8 By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to the place which he was to receive for an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he went. 9 By faith he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. 10 For he was looking for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
11 By faith even Sarah herself received power to conceive, and she bore a child when she was past age, since she counted him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore as many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as innumerable as the sand which is by the sea shore, were fathered by one man, and him as good as dead. 13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen‡ them and embraced them from afar, and having confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. 15 If indeed they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had enough time to return. 16 But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed of them, to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.
17 By faith, Abraham, being tested, offered up Isaac. Yes, he who had gladly received the promises was offering up his only born§ son, 18 to whom it was said, “Your offspring will be accounted as from Isaac,” * 19 concluding that God is able to raise up even from the dead. Figuratively speaking, he also did receive him back from the dead.
The primary program we offer at my little charity, Heritage Arts, is American Rough ‘n’ Tumble martial arts. Rough ‘n’ Tumble began in the Southern Virginia backcountry during the Colonial Era. It is an amalgam of the fighting styles brought to America by colonists from all over the world, blended with the mayhem-managing methods of indigenous tribes, cops, coal miners and carnies, soldiers and sailors, lumberjacks, so on.
In order to fight like the old-timers, we try to approach the world like the old-timers. Our program includes old-time fitness, outdoor skills, and lifeways. For example, this past week I ended a session with a compass exercise. I put a little flag in the ground to mark our starting point. As a group, we used a compass to orient us due North, spotted a landmark, and walked twenty paces. Then we stopped, took another reading, and walked twenty paces due East. We repeated this exercise to South and West. In theory, if our readings and our pacing were careful and correct, we should’ve walked a perfect square. If we did our job, we’d end up right where we started.
We came close – just two paces from the tiny flag where we began. Not bad at all. But I asked the guys, “What could we have done to improve our accuracy?” They had great answers, like “measuring our steps more accurately,” “using a better compass,” and “choosing our landmarks more carefully.” “Would that have helped, “ I asked, “if we had meditated on the location of the flag?” They replied, “No, I don’t think so.”
They were right of course. Focusing on the goal is not all that helpful. It’s much more beneficial to focus on our orientation. If our orientation is right, we will reach our destination. In fact, if we are well-oriented, we can reach any destination we choose. If our orientation is poor, we can’t get anywhere. It’s no coincidence that, in the sciences, “attitude” refers to the direction or orientation of an object.
The lesson of the compass mirrors the lesson of our reading from Hebrews. Faith is not blindness, it is orientation. Faith is not believing in made-up nonsense. Faith is trust. Faith is “proof of things not seen.” Can we see the magnetic waves of the Earth that move the compass needle? No. But we know where it points. The compass has been a proven piece of navigation equipment for almost a thousand years. Can we see God? Can we see his commandments hovering in mid-air? No. But we can see how orienting ourselves using his guiding principles orders the lives of individuals, directs our churches, inspires our communities, organizes the legal system of the Western world, and, and so on. We see what can be achieved when peoples and cultures follow the needle that is our God and Lord. Consider that the Cross is a compass rose on the map of life, and that crossing oneself is a physical demonstration of the desire to orient oneself toward God.
Abraham had no idea where we would end up. But in faith, he trusted God, his compass. In his old age, he went into the wilderness to find his way to a better life. Our lives are like that, brothers and sisters. We go forward each day into an uncharted future of unpredictable hazards and difficulties, twists and turns. But if we control our attitudes, choose our steps carefully, and trust in the infallible compass that is the Lord our God, we will arrive in the Promised Land.
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‡11:13 TR adds “and being convinced of”
§11:17 The phrase “only born” is from the Greek word “μονογενη”, which is sometimes translated “only begotten” or “one and only”.
*11:18 Genesis 21:12
