Connections Archive

Devotional: Wrestling and life


17 March 2010

Dr Bruce Manners
Senior minister
Avondale College Seventh-day Adventist Church

If only life were like a pro wrestling match. Planned and choreographed. But, says Dr Bruce Manners, sometimes it pins you to the floor.

Professional wrestling matches on television aren't real. I discovered this on howstuffworks.com when I keyed in "pro wrestling." The website described professional wrestling as theatre.

I guess you're as shocked as I am. It's a bit like when you learned the Easter Bunny doesn't deliver eggs.

Listen to this: "Pro wrestlers work very hard to make their moves look real, but inflict minimal damage. This is known as selling. If someone hits you with a pulled punch that barely touches you, but you time it correctly and leap backward as though you'd been smashed, then you've sold the move."

Wrestlers do hit each other and do get hurt but not as badly as it appears because it's choreographed. Imagine this: there are even slow parts--a head lock with minimal activity, for instance--that fans in the stadium watch while viewers at home watch advertisements.

At a certain point the referee will tell one of the wrestlers to "bring it home." That wrestler is the one who wins.

If only life were like that. Planned and choreographed. Planned so you knew you could "bring it home."

The problem is in the ring when there's a winner, there's a loser. You'd also have to live with knowing the times you're going to lose. Would you be bothered trying? Would Thomas Edison have looked beyond his 999 failures in light bulbs to the one that worked?

Probably, but only because he'd have known it would eventually work. Would he have tried if he knew he could never make it work? Would you?

Life is messy. There are moments that flow smoothly to the rhythm you prefer, but then it can turn upside down in a moment. Sometimes it pins you to the floor.

The Great Choreographer doesn't offer an easy life, He offers something better and that's to share the burden (see Matthew 11:28-30). He understands, too. After all, He once went down for the count. For you.

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