I have never considered myself to be an advocate of fisticuffs, but there I was in the middle of the ring in my first-ever-boxing match facing a terrifying barrage of punches trying to reduce my brain-cell count. The question running through my panicked mind was "How did I get myself into this?"

I was a college freshman playing on the varsity football team, not because I was such a great athlete, but because there were so few players on the team. I was the smallest of the players, which gave me a continual motivation to prove myself. In an effort to generate interest for the team the coaches came up with an idea…lets have a boxing exhibition! In a moment of temporary insanity, I volunteered to participate, and was paired up with Larry. Larry was a head taller than I was with wiry muscles and a big left-hook. Having been insultingly chosen to fight me, he began a two-week campaign of intimidation, telling everyone of his plan to annihilate me. I believed him.

Don, my sympathetic best friend, offered to be my trainer. The first thing we did was go to the movies…Rocky I had just come out. I saw the movie four more times in the next two weeks, between a regimen of running, sit-ups and pep talks from Don. I perfected my impersonation of Rocky yelling out "Adrian!" and hoped I could just go the distance of three rounds with Larry. Our game plan (I should say Don’s game plan!) was to be like Rocky (that was acting, I reminded Don!) and to never stop moving forward in the ring, keep jabbing with my left, and avoid getting hit (The last part of the plan was my idea.) I just wanted to be standing up at the end of the fight.

The day came, the gym was packed with spectators, and I was the first bout of the night. There was an excitement in the crowd, kind of like the coliseum just before the lions met the Christians. My coach came to my corner with timeless advice. "Don’t make hay!" he said. Not knowing exactly what that meant, I figured it was his way of telling me not to get myself killed. The story of David and Goliath came into my mind, but there were no stone handy. The bell rang. Don cried out "Get ‘im, Rocky!" Fear drove me forward. The terror in my eyes must have looked something like ferocity to Larry because he began to back up. All I remember about the fight is moving forward, throwing left jabs (which never connected), and covering up whenever I saw the left hook coming towards my head. When the third round ended I stood exhausted in the middle of the ring, and suddenly the referee raised my hand as the winner by decision. The crowd went wild. In my boxing career, I’m still undefeated, 1-0.

The lesson that I took from this experience is a simple one. There are forces in the world, most of them unseen, that would like nothing better than to crush me. But if I keep moving forward, keep my guard up, and stick to the game plan, I can make it through anything. The apostle Paul said it better...

(Go to this link and listen to the title song of my CD – it’s called "til then…")

Here is the link: www.indieheaven.com/artists/jim_black