"I am a Paladin" - Repeat It, Believe It, Achieve It

I'm sure you've all heard of the idea of telling yourself something until you believe it, and I wouldn't be surprised if you were also aware of the concept of believing something, especially something about yourself, until it's made real. Motivational speakers uses this concept all the time to help people recognize and remove their self-limitations. A wise man once said “Whether you think you can, or you think you can't--you're right.”

I usually don't subscribe to the "believing is achieving" philosophy because I don't think that it really works. Just thinking something doesn't make it true. But hey, maybe it was my unbelief that it would really work that has kept it from working. In any case, it's worth trying, especially when I could use all the help I can get.

Yesterday, at the end of my blog post, I made one or two bold statements about myself. I said that I was a paladin, and that service was in my blood. I didn't say it because I think it's true, or because I think it's an accurate description of me, but rather because I want it to be. I want to be a paladin. I want my life to focus on service. I want a lot of things that just aren't happening right now, but maybe I can change that.

My hope is that if I call myself a paladin enough times, I'll start to believe that I'm a paladin, encouraging me to act like a paladin, which will help me be more like a paladin (conveniently authenticating both the statements and the belief). If I tell myself that I'm a paladin, knowing that paladins are champions of righteousness, it may help me act like and ultimately become a champion of righteousness. I'm not saying it because it's true right now. I'm saying it because I hope that saying it now will help me make it true later. In fact, it's been helping already.

A lot of Christians, faced with tough decisions, as themselves "What would Jesus do?" but that doesn't make much sense to me. As I was growing up, I was sure that Jesus was always kind, always caring, always giving, always loving, but as I've been reading the New Testament, sometimes He said or did things that I thought wasn't quite in line with what I thought a Christlike person would do.

Two examples off the top of my head: A woman comes to Jesus, asking for healing, and He says no. "You're a Gentile, I'm here for the Jews. You don't take food meant for your children and feed it to dogs." (I'm very badly paraphrasing all of this, by the way.) But the woman persisted and Christ eventually healed her, but I wonder why He didn't heal her right away. From my perspective, it seemed that He was being unkind. Maybe He was giving her an opportunity to exercise faith, and maybe that would be worth more to her soul in the long run than receiving the blessing right away would have been, but if someone comes to you for help, and you think "What would Jesus do?" Your answer to that question probably wouldn't, or even shouldn't, be "Say 'no' at first and maybe insult them, then help them later, if they keep asking." I'm sure He had His reasons, but I'd be surprised if He wanted us to treat everyone that way.

Second example: There's a guy with a legion of devils in him, and Jesus goes to cast them out. The devils say, "Hey, if you're going to kick us out, at least let us possess those swine, okay?" Jesus gave them the go-ahead, and the possessed swine ran off a cliff into the sea. What's wrong with that? Well, apart from the needless death and destruction, we have evidence to suggest that those pigs belonged to someone. Jesus willfully allowed the death and destruction of swine that seemed to belong to someone else. Sure, the pigs were just going to be slaughtered anyway, and maybe the owner was cruel to them and death was a release for the poor swine. Maybe God had plans for the swine-owner's life that didn't involve owning a herd of swine. Maybe, Jesus knew what He was doing and had multiple, very good reasons for it. But if you ever asked yourself "What would Jesus do?" I would be extremely surprised if the answer you got was "Allow a legion of devils to hurl a herd of someone else's swine into the ocean."

My problem with "What would Jesus do?" isn't that Jesus did some un-Christlike stuff. By definition, it's impossible for Him to have ever been un-Christlike. My problem with it is that He knows stuff that we don't know. He knew why it was a good idea to let Legion kill the swine. He knew why it was better to make the woman wait for her healing than to heal her right away. In any situation, Jesus would figure out the perfect thing to do, and then He'd do it, but we, foolish humans, may not be able to figure it out. The problem is, we've been asking ourselves what a perfect person would do, but we can never really answer that question because we don't have their wisdom.

It may be better to ask "What would a very kind, loving person do?" That question, we might be able to answer, and the response we come up with will be a good one because it's inspired by kindness and love. It may not be the best answer, because we may not be able to figure out with the best answer is, but it'll be a good one. What I've been doing is taking that thought and making it a little more specific - adding that the person in question is also valiant and courageous, chivalrous and respectful, and sworn to resist and oppose evil whenever or wherever it appears - and summing it up in a much smaller number of words: "What would a paladin do?"

Now, a paladin may not be a perfect example, compared to Jesus Christ. Jesus is our ultimate exemplar, and a fictitious paladin is not. I admit that. However, I must also admit that I am not perfect, not will I ever be (in this life, anyway). Nor do I have ultimate wisdom. I do not know what Jesus would do in many of the situations I face, but I can guess what a paladin might do. He'd fight hard to live up to his covenants. He'd sacrifice anything from momentary pleasures to his own life, if necessary, to do what he feels is right. He might make mistakes, not having the infinite wisdom of the Holy Light he has committed himself to follow, but he will always try to do the right thing, and he will always repent when he finds that he has done wrong. All the better, a paladin will constantly strive to improve himself until he reaches that lofty goal of perfection that Jesus has already reached. Being a paladin is much more attainable to an imperfect person like me, and it still keeps me trying to become better, more righteous and more holy, than I am.

So I tell myself that I am a paladin, so as to tell myself that I must act like a paladin, so as to tell myself that I must become better than I am. And if I make myself believe that I am (figurative) a paladin, I will know that I must be as strong and committed as a paladin is, and I will be as strong and committed as a paladin is, and I will be committed as strong - Stronger than I am now, and more committed to follow the example of Jesus Christ. The ultimate goal is still the same. Becoming a paladin is the path I have chosen to get me there.