Fear Does Not Exist in This Dojo

I’ve spent much of my life living in fear. When I was younger, I spent nights trying to silence the taunts and jeers of kids twice my size echoing in my head, looking for a soft place to take root in my thoughts. When I wasn’t trying to dodge the ridicule and malice of some of my classmates, I was trying desperately to appease the few friends I had. I entered the workforce with a deep desire to succeed, but a crippling doubt in my ability to do so. That doubt was conveyed to my managers as a “lack of initiative” and my professional growth was stunted as a result.

Fear has a nasty habit of seeping into every aspect of our life and poisoning our pursuits. But the good news is that it can be conquered.

Cobra Kai follows the story of Johnny Lawrence, the “Golden Boy” and former All-Valley karate champion in the classic movie The Karate Kid. The show features many central characters from the original movie, including the protagonist Daniel LaRusso, but the story focuses on Johnny and his reformed dojo named Cobra Kai.

Johnny instills a sense of confidence and strength in his Cobra Kai students by engraining the dojo’s motto into them:

Strike first. Strike hard. No mercy.

Pay close attention to your reaction to these 3 simple statements. Do they make you uncomfortable? Do they ruffle the feathers of your modern, Christian sensibilities?

Good.

Conquering fear requires that you fight, and fighting is painful. Fighting means being forced out of your comfort zone, and it requires swift and determined action. But most of us have been taught that dispelling fear means offering a few half-hearted words to God in hopes that fear will just leave us alone. Too many Christians resign themselves to coping with their fear instead of challenging it head on, which leads to insecurity, doubt, and shame.

Matthew 10:16 says “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore, be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” So let’s take a closer look at those 3 statements, and find out if we are Cobra Kai material.

Strike First

You know that awkward feeling you get when talking in a circle of people, but you only know about half of them? Introductions need to be made, but instead you fidget in your stance and try to casually avoid the gaze of the people in the circle you don’t know. Or think back to when you were in the same room as your school crush. You want so badly to make a great impression, but you don’t dare take a step in their direction out of fear that they might think you were desperate.

There’s something about making the first move that drives most of us insane with fear.

But if we’re honest with ourselves, we know that we’re inexplicably drawn to people who have mastered the art of striking first. They make natural leaders, are seen as pioneers in their areas of expertise, and make wonderful friends.

Many people want these things to be said of them, yet so few are willing to take the risk of being first. You sacrifice your own comfort and sense of safety when you decide to step out and initiate something when everyone else stands still. Or to speak when everyone else is silent. You risk being rejected or looking different when you decide to take action in the midst of passivity.

But it’s exactly these actions that stop fear dead in its tracks. Striking first dispels fear by showing you will not be manipulated by the expectations of others. It reminds yourself that you are capable of handling difficult situations and has the bonus affect of making you more attractive to the people around you.

I’ve had multiple conversations with the single guys in my group of friends who are terrified of asking the girl they’re interested in out on a date. The most common excuse they give goes something like, “what if she says no?” To which my response is always the same: What if she says yes?

I once heard a pastor say that fear is a prophet spirit. It will prophecy a future to you that is absent of the presence of God. When we think about our future the way some of my single friends do, we allow fear to paralyze us and keep us from a potentially wonderful outcome if we strike first.

Like any skill, striking first needs to be practiced. It will be difficult, even painful sometimes, but I promise the rewards far outweigh the risks.

Strike Hard

When London and I got married, I was immediately struck by how difficult it was to get her to taste food she was unfamiliar with. She would start by observing what I offered her from all sides, rotating the piece of food on her fork to get every angle. Then she proceeded to sniff at it. One unfamiliar scent and the journey might be over. If the morsel had passed the sight and smell test, she’d move on to licking it…licking it.

Needless to say, it drove me nuts.

Striking first is only the first hurdle to overcome when battling fear. Even when we choose to act, we often find ourselves acting slowly or carefully to mitigate any damage we might sustain or cause. So, we don’t pick up a new hobby unless we know we’ll succeed at it. We don’t speak the truth unless we’re positive it’ll be received well. We don’t act unless we know that our own safety and comfort will not be too greatly impacted.

In his best-selling book Wild at Heart, John Eldredge describes this struggle like this: “We pick only those battles we are sure to win, only those adventures we are sure to handle, only those beauties we are sure to rescue.”

I remember a tough conversation I once had with a supervisor. I was young and irresponsible with my time, so I consistently arrived to work late. But when the conversation started, I was surprised to hear my supervisor showering me with praise. Once I was buttered up, we got down to the issue and discussed my tardiness. Then he ended with another 5 minutes or so of praise.

I walked out of that meeting feeling manipulated, and more confused than when I walked in. I didn’t feel like my boss respected me enough as a young man to handle criticism, and I felt that his praise wasn’t sincere. If he had just been honest with me and spoke directly to the issue, I think I would’ve felt much better about the conversation.

When we refuse to strike hard, we limit ourselves to the level of strength we currently possess, and we rob ourselves of some truly wonderful experiences. We also communicate a sense of insecurity and cautiousness to those around us. Anything worth doing is worth doing with everything you’ve got.

No Mercy

I know, I know. This point seems so counter-intuitive to the Christian message. But I’m not talking about being merciless to the people around us. I’m talking about being relentless in our pursuit of Christ and in our fight with fear.

There’s a reason that gym memberships are insanely discounted at the beginning of each year. They are banking on our fallen tendency to give up when things get difficult. So we hit the gym faithfully for the first month and fall off around Valentine’s Day, only to let shame and pride convince us not to cancel the membership until a couple more unused payments.

So what do we do when we strike first, strike hard…and our obstacles are still standing? We fight.

Wars are never won after one battle, and a fight is rarely over after a single blow. If you’ve committed to striking first and striking hard, then you’ve committed to fight until the battle is won.

We meet with Jesus daily, because our relationship with him requires constant cultivating. We study Scripture daily because it does more than comfort us, it strengthens and emboldens so that we can keep fighting. When our prayers seem to have fallen on deaf ears we pray again, convinced in our hearts that God hears us. We gather with other believers so that we can encourage each other to never give up the fight.

Showing no mercy means refusing to yield to anything that the enemy offers. It means ruthlessly eliminating things in our lives that cause us to compromise or encourage a sinful lifestyle. It’s a commitment to coming out of hiding and facing our fear head on.

This is when Fear throws everything it has at us. It will try to convince us that fighting is useless and will try to intimidate us into giving up. But showing no mercy is the mindset of champions. Anyone can strike first, some can strike hard, but very few learn to show no mercy.

Conclusion

There is actually one more bonus point that is engrained in the culture of Cobra Kai, but it's so good, it deserves a blog post of it's own! So be on the lookout for that!

Cobra Kai has thrilled fans of The Karate Kid movie and newcomers alike because it offers something that our culture desperately needs: strength. With so much going on in our world today, it’s easier than ever to give in to fear and despair. But the message of Cobra Kai gives its viewers hope that if we can do nothing else, at least we can fight for what’s right.

Give Cobra Kai a watch today, and get to work on fighting back in the war against fear.