The Way of the Warrior: An Ancient Path to Inner Peace

by Erwin Raphael McManus

When your mind is shaped by hope, you do not see simply two paths; you see an endless number of paths filled with opportunity, possibility, and beauty. However, if your mind-set is shaped by cynicism or fear or doubt, then the only paths you see in front of you are the ones that are filled with pain and disappointment, with failure and hardship.

Have you ever considered that what you allow to shape your mind is what shapes your perception of the opportunities in front of you? That’s why when you are full of fear, every possible future seems terrifying. That’s why when you carry inside your soul wounding and brokenness, every potential future is fraught with disappointment and betrayal. Your...

The hardest thing to do is convince someone who is overwhelmed with despair that there is actually a future and hope. One of the most difficult things to do is convince someone who has been heartbroken, who has lost at love, that there is a person out there who will love them completely and will long for their love in return. It is very difficult to help someone who has come to the end of a dream, who feels devastated by failure, to realize there is a greater future waiting for them, that there is another dream waiting to be awakened. One of the greatest gifts we can give others is to help them have new eyes with which they can see their own selves, their own lives, and their own future. Paul’s words become more poignant: “Do not be conformed to the pattern of this world. Do not allow your mind to be shaped by any patterns that would steal from you the hope that God created you to live in.”

Faith changes our perceptions of the future. Faith always sees a way. In Hebrews we are told that faith is the substance of things unseen and the assurance of things hoped for.56 I don’t know about you, but I have found it’s much easier to have confidence in things I have rather than things I hope for. In the same way, it’s much easier to have assurance about things I can see than about things I cannot see.

I looked at him as if the answer was obvious. I told the small group listening, “I think it matters less whether you believe the sun stood still than whether you have such limited thinking that you believe that it’s not possible. I prefer the mind-set that believes the sun could stand still because it is a mind-set of endless possibilities.” The person who automatically eliminates that possibility is a person with limited thinking. I love that faith expands our imagination and opens us to a universe with endless possibilities.

When you allow your mind-set to be shaped with the dynamic processes of faith, hope, and love, your mind-set becomes ever expanding. When your mind stream is informed by the endless opportunities visible only by faith, by the rich beauty and wonder visible only with hope, by the richness and depth available only through love, then the future becomes everything God ever intended it to be for you. So my question for you is simple: When you look into the future, what do you see? The warrior must win the battle in their mind against fear, doubt, and hate and walk courageously into a future revealed only through faith, hope, and love.

I would never discount the devastating effects of wounds not bought but given. You had no choice about where you were born or to what family you were born into. I completely understand why so many people carry not only wounds but bitterness like a noose around the neck. It is not easy to convince someone to forgive when there is no contrition from the offender. It may be one of the most difficult things in this world to let go of bitterness when it has been the only dam holding back the tears.

Taking responsibility when something is your fault makes perfect sense, but it’s a tough pill to swallow that you need to take ownership over your circumstances even when they’re not your fault. Here is the hard reality: even if it’s not your fault, it’s still your responsibility. Though the wounding wasn’t your fault, the healing is your responsibility. Though your past may not be your fault, your future is your responsibility. Though their choices were not your fault, your choices are your responsibility. Don’t let those who are at fault keep their hold on your life by relinquishing your power to change and to be free of them. Bitterness is how your soul lets you know they still have power over you. Hatred traps the poison inside you. Only love and forgiveness allow you the power to move forward. Anger is not your strength; intention is. Every person you have not forgiven, everything in the past that holds you, has stolen a part of who you are. One of the greatest battles of the warrior is to reclaim the territories of the soul.

We are reminded by Paul that we have been bought with a price and within us there is great treasure. The servant who buried the talent thought it was enough to say to the master, “I hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.”67 He had convinced himself that all he was responsible for was what had been handed to him. The truth is that we are responsible for far more than what we hav...

When you have a high self-image with a low relationship to personal responsibility, you have to create a scenario in which someone or something else is to blame. The important thing to remember is not that you need to have a lower view of yourself (although that may be true too) but that your power comes in taking personal responsibility for your life.

The way of the warrior is a path toward ownership. The warrior takes responsibility for their life, their actions, and the world around them. The warrior knows that they own nothing, so they can risk everything. The warrior knows that the measure of their success is not in the outcome but in the intention. The courage to face the challenge is the victory. The warrior is not afraid to be exposed by defeat. Defeat does not diminish the heart of the warrior, for they do not fight for their own fame but for the freedom of others. If your view of yourself is greater than what reality can bear, you will choose to protect yourself from great risks because you cannot bear the blunt-force trauma of failure. If you know that failure is a temporary condition and believe hard work will see you through, you’re more likely to take bigger risks. If your practice in life is taking great risks, you are all too familiar with the impact of failure. Ironically, if failure is not an option, neither is taking risks. Failure is an inevitable ingredient of success. And because you know that, you know that failure is not terminal.

Years ago, we at Mosaic had a massive breakdown at one of our events. The next day all the leaders of all the teams met to assess the breakdown. I remember asking for clarification and asking what I thought was a pretty simple question: “Who is responsible for this particular area where the breakdown happened?” One by one, everyone in the room told me it was not their responsibility. It was a strange and surreal moment to be sitting in a room full of executives where apparently not one of them was responsible for the principal item on our agenda. I paused for a moment, took a deep breath to think it over, and then gave everyone an assignment: “I want you to go find the person responsible for this so I can hire them, because they are the only person who should be in this room.” If you’re not responsible for a problem, you don’t have the power to fix it. Find the person who takes responsibility and y...