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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.”
Mettle maker #433: Mettlecraft Month 2024 Week 4
Mettlecraft Month is in full swing —this year we’re facing survival, rescue, and mettle tests for self-defense readiness compiled from a variety of sources, including but not limited to Mark Hatmaker’s Black Box Program, various armed forces readiness tests, Native American traditions, survival exams, and so on.
Distance learners and friends should face the challenges solo. Share links to photos and videos by email or in the comments.
They are not competitive. The goal of these tests is simply to self-assess — to disabuse yourself of misconceptions and become aware of your actual capabilities.
Modify, adapt, and overcome. “Do what you can, where your, with what you’ve got” (Theo. Roosevelt). This week it was raining, so we switched things up a bit to avoid getting people and equipment muddy. A little rain is okay, but nobody wants to hop in the car and drive home covered in mud! See video on above-right.
WEEK 4: Conditioning Exercise Drill #1 from FM 21-20 Department of the Army Field Manual “Physical Training” (1950).
Look, not everything we do around here is a resounding success. Sometimes we try things and they don’t work out. There has to be a dud in every box of firecrackers, and in my opinion, this was one of those. Seemed like a good idea at the time, so we tried it. I’ll never do this again. I don’t know what they were thinking in 1950, but this is just weird. There are quite a few awkward, back-killing exercises in this thing, interspersed with pointless stretches and massive numbers of Push-ups (64 slow, and narrow old-school ones). But you know what, maybe it’s right up your alley. Click the pic on the right for more details:
Conditioning Exercise Drill #1 from FM 21-20 (All counts 16)
High Jumper
Bend and Reach
Squat Thrust
Rowing Exercise and Bottoms Up
Squat Bender
Push Up
Side Bender
Body Twist and Turn and Bounce
Squat Jumper
Trunk Twister
Stationary Run
Eight Count Push-up
Bonus Homework: The Silent Insomniac Test. This comes from Mark Hatmaker’s Indigenous Ability Blog. “Can you for 3-days straight set your alarm for 3:08 AM [or whatever time that fits your shift schedule] wake-up at once [no snooze button] get on your feet and remain standing or walking around for an entire ¼ of an hour? No texting, phone checking, reading. Just you facing the prospect of waking up in the middle of the night and simply being up. Curiously, in our surveys this is one of our tests that even the most rock-solid “Hoo-aahs!” hate completing. Which means, it must be important.”
If this week’s mettle maker was fun, consider signing up for a totally free mind-body-spirit program that incorporates self-defense, fitness, outdoor skills, and spiritual development — sign up for our free Rough ‘n’ Tumble Distance Learning Program!
Holy Eucharist 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 Eucharist, CLICK HERE.
Homily for the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe, 11/24/24 – Father Mitch
Readings: Dn 7:13-14, Ps 93:1, 1-2, 5, Rv 1:5-8, Jn 18:33b-37
John 18:33b-37 World English Bible
Pilate said to Jesus, “Are you the King of the Jews?”
34 Jesus answered him, “Do you say this by yourself, or did others tell you about me?”
35 Pilate answered, “I’m not a Jew, am I? Your own nation and the chief priests delivered you to me. What have you done?”
36 Jesus answered, “My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight, that I wouldn’t be delivered to the Jews. But now my Kingdom is not from here.”
37 Pilate therefore said to him, “Are you a king then?”
Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this reason I have been born, and for this reason I have come into the world, that I should testify to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.”
Churches are grouped together into dioceses, consistories, classis, presbyteries, synods, etc. depending on the denomination, led by bishops and elders. Denominations are joined in communions, or associations of churches, headed by patriarchs and leaders of various kinds – the Roman Catholic Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury who leads Church of England, the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, and so on. There is a chain of command, a hierarchy, that stacks up like a pyramid.
That’s what people do. Everywhere human beings go, we create pyramidal reporting structures. The most powerful and authoritative person up at the top delegates some of his or her authority to leaders of smaller and smaller divisions, right on down the line. Power and authority trickle down. In the army, generals lead divisions and brigades; brigades are divided into regiments led by colonels, which are divided into companies led by majors, etc. all the way down to platoons led by lieutenants.
Every human organization follows this model. And that’s great, as far as it goes. Certainly, we should conform our families, communities, states, and nations, as much as humanly possible, to God’s expectations. Certainly, we should arrange our churches into hierarchies. But we must guard against thinking that God’s Kingdom is constructed like a human hierarchy. Christ’s Kingdom is not a church or a nation-state.
If that’s what it was, Jesus would’ve described it in human terms. But he didn’t do that. Nowhere in the gospels does Jesus explain precisely what the Kingdom is. Instead he speaks of it only in parables. And in today’s Gospel reading he specifically says, “My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight, that I wouldn’t be delivered to the Jews. But now my Kingdom is not from here.”
What Jesus has in mind is an entirely different arrangement. Jesus is not a general who appoints colonels, majors, and captains to administer his authority and carry out his orders. His authority is not delegated. It is not divided. It does not trickle down. No, his kingship penetrates from within. It comes from the inside out. As St. Paul says in Colossians 1:15-20,
5 He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things are held together. 18 He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence. 19 For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross.
Yes, our Lord Jesus Christ is the King of the Universe indeed. And how do we find entry into his Kingdom, which is at once everywhere and nowhere, both in the heavens and on earth, made up both the visible and invisible? Well, dear ones, Jesus said that all we need to do is “Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened. Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 7:7-8, 21)