Wing Chun - A Gospel Analogy

Ever since I watched Ip Man, I’ve always had a desire to learn Wing Chun. And now at university, I have a chance to pick it up. The experience thus far has been excellent. There is a nice small community and we have a coach who believes in serious fun. I enjoy the fact that our coach is very concerned with applicability, and he’s realistic in saying that if someone threatens us on the street, running should be our first instinct.

Anyway, from my understanding, there are three basic (weaponless) forms in Wing Chun. So far every week, we start our training session with basic drills: opening stance, forward stance, basic punching, stepping, turning, etc. I’m fine with doing these drills because I’m a neophyte, but I wonder at how even experienced students go through these drills with us. I guess our coach explains why we do the same drills every time we go through the basics, but it’s only recently that I’ve begun to understand why.

He says that although some other martial arts teach different techniques – whereby you learn a particular technique, then move on to another, or something like that – in Wing Chun, everything starts from the basic movements, or forms, and everything else is merely extending, or applying those forms to different situations. That means, when engaging an opponent, a Wing Chun practitioner merely employs the basic forms he’s learnt in response to the situation, or attack.

This reminded me of the role of the gospel for the Christian. But first, a question: when challenging and encouraging Christians to grow in godliness and to fight sin, do we assume they know the gospel, and tell them the ‘top ten tips for battling lust’? I think we are tempted to immediately appeal to do’s and don’ts when it comes to Christian living, focusing on certain ‘techniques’ on battling sin. But what learning Wing Chun has taught me is that before I can fight sin and grow in godliness, I need to be so steeped in, so familiar with, and so disciplined by, the gospel. Why do we in Wing Chun go through the basics every time we train? Because it’s not natural, and we want to be so in tuned with the various moves that there is no easy way but hard work and constant practice. If this applies to something like Wing Chun, I think it should apply to the Christian life. Why do we assume that people ‘already know the gospel,’ or that ‘the gospel alone isn’t enough’? Certainly we are not saying that we just say the same things and people will ‘automatically’ know how to act. But the gospel has to be our starting point every time.

I think that Christian messages or talks that make moral injunctions without any reminder of the gospel is questionable - for how is that message different from moralism? And any message that talks about grace without a challenge to pursue holiness, I find suspicious – for how is that message different from antinomianism? Besides learning some bits of Wing Chun, from these training sessions I’ve observed a few things that might be helpful analogies when thinking about the Christian life.

Firstly, we need to constantly remind ourselves about the gospel, not in way that becomes mundane, but in a way that we are self-critical and self-evaluative. In Wing Chun, as we are doing our basic exercises, we are constantly checking to see if we are following the correct form. This is important because if we don’t lay a foundation, and don’t strengthen it, sooner or later, we’ll just be waving our hands in the air and look silly. If I don’t want to practice the basics, it’s as good as saying I don’t want to learn Wing Chun. Similarly, if we don’t constantly remember the gospel, there is the danger of losing the ultimate source of power for the Christian life.  

Secondly, we never mature from the gospel. I think there is a tendency to think that mature Christians understand grace and all that stuff, so we only tell non-Christians or new believers that; and once they’ve understood it, we move on to the more important stuff like dealing with sin, prayer, or finding God’s will. I think that that is a fallacy which has to be corrected. It is striking that in 1 Corinthians, a letter where Paul deals with lots of issues in the church, he says in the opening verses of chapter 15 “Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you” (v1); also “for I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins … was buried … was raised … in accordance with the Scriptures” (v3-4). Have we forgotten that the gospel is central to Christianity?

          In Wing Chun, we are reminded that the basic forms are absolutely crucial - if we want to be able to apply it to real life situations - by repeatedly practising it. I think in Christianity, we need to be reminded that the good news of Jesus’ death and resurrection is foundational - if we are to live as Christians in this world - by repeatedly reminding ourselves and others these truths. 

Good News - We're Failures!

         One week of introductory lectures have passed and beginning to dig deeper into the content and texts that I will be studying, I sense a kind of pressure in lecture theatres where everyone is furiously taking down notes and trying to capture each word that issues from the mouth of the lecturer – be it a quote from a scholar, a passage from the text or the lecturer’s own analysis of ideas and synthesis of arguments.

         There is a weight that burdens our shoulders and bogs down our minds – the mad desire to succeed. Just like Arthurian knights who refuse to cower in the face of adversity, regardless of the odds stacked against them, simply because they seek to win glory, honour and a beautiful maiden’s hand, I see about 200 little knights embarking on our own adventures to win acclaim and recognition. Failing is not an option, to lose a joust is to earn shame, and usually it is the bad guy that loses and the noble knight emerges victorious. Well, most of the time.

          Vicariously we are living in the Age of Chivalry. Failing a test or exam is akin to submitting to a better knight, not being able to contribute ideas in a tutorial could be similar to a knight not being able to defend the honour and chastity of the maiden he is escorting. There is immense pressure to prove oneself to be the best knight that unconsciously, one compares oneself to others and a silent ‘tournament’ ensues on the battlefield within our hearts.

           Defeated knights are often chucked into a corner and later unheard – as though cast away by society. Isn’t this the same with the modern world? Someone isn’t worth our time if he or she doesn’t ‘succeed’ in his or her ‘quest’.

          But news of our failure isn’t bad – it is good! In fact, we have failed to live up to an even higher standard – a standard beyond the modern reinvention of the chivalric code of honour. This bar is set and dictated by God Himself who is the reality of perfection. Chretien de Troyes writes that ‘largesse alone makes one a worthy man, not high birth, courtesy, wisdom, gentility, riches, strength, chivalry, boldness, power, beauty, or any other gift.’ God who in His generosity, his largesse ‘blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places’ (Eph 1:3b). Us, who were men and women living as enemies of God – we who wished God dead and lived as though He were dead!

          We have failed to conduct ourselves to the code of conduct God instructed us to abide as his subjects, but the good news is that it is in our inability to earn the prize, our helplessness in dealing with our quest to earn God’s approval that God, through Jesus’ blood gave us redemption and the forgiveness of our trespasses.

          This means we don’t have to undergo the impossible journey of finding favour with God through our own strengths and merits, neither do we need to prove ourselves to this world that we are worthy men or women. Jesus has completed that quest when he hung in utter shame on the cross, derided and mocked by those he came to rescue; so that now in him, we are adopted into God’s family and will one day be assured of sharing his glory if we are continually trusting him. What manner of honour and glory can this world offer that could surpass or merely equal that weight of glory? I dare say none.

          There is so much more worth in being called God’s child then to graduate with a first.

          So what happens the next time I have angst about success and failures? I have to remember that it is good news! Because Jesus succeeded for me.