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Mettle Maker #389
What’s the weekly mettle maker? Training tips and educational information in support of our free programs, that’s what! What’s mettle? According the American Heritage Dictionary, mettle is, “The ability to meet a challenge or persevere under demanding circumstances; determination or resolve.”
Heritage Self-Defense: Work Hatmaker’s silver dollar test. Your weapon is no good if you can’t get it into play quickly with no telegraphing. Use Mark Hatmaker’s sliver dollar test and drill to get fast and test your speed. Works with any weapon! Put a silver dollar on the back of your hand at arm’s length. Now strike the target — heavy bag or war post — before the silver dollar touches the ground. So simple, and yet so effective.
Interested in American Rough and Tumble martial arts with a spiritual center? Join the martial arts club in Richmond, VA or click here to sign up for the Heritage self-defense distance learning program.
Heritage Fitness and Heritage Wildwood Outdoor Skills: Fancy equipment? Who needs it! Too often we focus on the quality of our equipment. We don’t even consider doing an exercise routine, or going on a hiking, fishing, climbing, or camping trip until we have the perfect reel, pack, shoes, boat, or what-have-you.
Pollywogs and tater tots.
Take a look at the kinds of equipment people were using in the 19th and early 20th centuries (see gallery above/right). Check out especially the stalwart fellow with a skin covered canoe or coracle on his back while fishing. That guy really wants to go fish.
Maybe, if you’re obsessing about having perfect equipment, you really just don’t want to fish all that bad.
Do a little soul searching in that regard. Maybe there’s something that, in your heart of hearts, you really do want to do. Whatever that is, go out and do it.
Need a free fitness coach to help you build a program that suits your specific needs and goals? Or maybe a free adult outdoor skills program? Click here to sign up for one of our free programs!
Holy Communion is LIVE on YouTube every Sunday at 10 am EASTERn. Click HERE to watch live. To view and print a copy of the program for holy communion, CLICK HERE.
Homily for the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, 1/21/24 – Father Mitch
Readings: Jon 3:1-5, 10, Ps 25:4-5, 6-7, 8-9, 1 Cor 7:29-31, Mk 1:14-20
Jonah 3:1-5
1 The LORD’s word came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2 “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I give you.”
3 So Jonah arose, and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD’s word. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, three days’ journey across. 4 Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried out, and said, “In forty days, Nineveh will be overthrown!”
5 The people of Nineveh believed God; and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth, from their greatest even to their least. 6 The news reached the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, took off his royal robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7 He made a proclamation and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, “Let neither man nor animal, herd nor flock, taste anything; let them not feed, nor drink water; 8 but let them be covered with sackcloth, both man and animal, and let them cry mightily to God. Yes, let them turn everyone from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows whether God will not turn and relent, and turn away from his fierce anger, so that we might not perish?”
10 God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way. God relented of the disaster which he said he would do to them, and he didn’t do it.
Mark 1:14-20
14 Now after John was taken into custody, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the Good News of God’s Kingdom, 15 and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and God’s Kingdom is at hand! Repent, and believe in the Good News.”
16 Passing along by the sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. 17 Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you into fishers for men.”
18 Immediately they left their nets, and followed him.
19 Going on a little further from there, he saw James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, who were also in the boat mending the nets. 20 Immediately he called them, and they left their father, Zebedee, in the boat with the hired servants, and went after him.
Life is like sailing the sea. The storms of life arise quickly, the riptides are invisible, and the ocean depths hide monstrous beasts. Like sunken treasure, there’s an outside chance you might get a promotion or win the lottery. But for the most part, one minute everything is fine and the next minute your car breaks down, you get laid off, a friend passes away, or illness strikes. There’s always something dangerous and unpredictable bubbling up from beneath the surface.
So when the Lord tells Jonah to go East and preach repentance to Nineveh, a massive city filled with the enemies of Israel, Jonah hops on a ship going in the opposite direction, West toward Tarshish. No wonder. Life is crazy and unpredictable enough without street preaching in strange city! And when a storm threatens to capsize and destroy the boat and everyone on board, he hides below decks. The crazier his life gets, the more Jonah retreats. Isn’t this what people often do? Avoid the real cause of our problems, ignore our faults and moral failures, and pretend everything is okay? Don’t we often let others shoulder our responsibilities and steer the boat?
But finally Jonah admits that his defiance of the Lord is the cause of the storm and encourages the boat’s sailors to throw him overboard, whereupon he is promptly consumed by a giant fish. Again, this is precisely what people do. We surrender to our faults, resign ourselves to our fates, and give up. We say, “Oh well, I might as well just admit I’m an addict,” or “I guess I’m just destined to be unhappy,” or poor, or unfulfilled, or what-have-you. We stop trying to change things and let ourselves be swallowed up.
Finally Jonah repents and is vomited out on dry land. He obeys the Lord, preaches to the people of Nineveh and they are saved through repentance. Unfortunately, Jonah’s story ends ambiguously. Because as soon as he starts to get on the right track, he heads for the wasteland of anger and bitterness.
But the apostles answer the Lord’s call. They don’t go the opposite way. If you’ve ever watched a documentary or a television show about fishermen, you understand the kind of strength and guts it takes to fish for a living. Fishermen don’t scare easy. They are accustomed to storms, danger, and misfortune. So the apostles steer their own ship, and they don’t let anybody other than God navigate. They understand that the world is unpredictable and scary and things are going to go wrong. But they know that if seize control and listen to God, you have a navigator who will guide you to your ultimate destination!
Nor do they go overboard and let themselves be swallowed up by their own faults and fears. Once they sailed the literal sea and brought back actual fish for food and livelihood. But now, guided by and obedient to the Lord, they go out into a chaotic world and, instead of fish, they reach down into the darkness and lift up sinners to God.
There are two ways to sail the seas of life. You can, like Jonah, disregard your faults and let yourself be swallowed up by them. You can hand off the rudder or your life to others and ignore God, be hardheaded, resentful, and bitter. Or you can be like the apostles. You can take charge of your existence, face your own faults and the challenges of life head on, and listen to God.
Which is it going to be?