Lydiah's Journey to Black Belt in Karate

Written by Lydia Nielsen

I recently had the privilege of earning my black belt in Karate. It was a difficult task to say the least. I began training at just 6 years old alongside my mom and siblings when we were missionaries in Puebla, Mexico. When I first began, I never imagined where it would lead me today! After we moved back to Minnesota and my mom opened her own karate school, I became more focused and more involved. My mom started me over as a white belt, but I worked hard and quickly moved back up the ranks. I earned my black belt in mixed martial arts in 2023 and now my black belt in karate in September of this year.

As the years have gone on and our school has grown, I have also had the privilege of becoming the lead teacher for some of our kids’ classes. This sport has become a huge passion of mine, and I love that I am able to influence student’s lives through the skills and values we teach. Not only am I able to teach them, but they constantly challenge me to learn and adapt as well. People who know me well know that I am a true introvert and can be very quiet. However, in class, I have learned to be confident, outgoing, and have learned how to teach students of different learning styles and ages (even those much older than me). I have found such confidence and passion in this sport that now when asked a question about martial arts, I can get talking for hours.

This is one of the things I have come to love most about martial arts: the community and camaraderie we build. Even though it is an individual sport, we still train alongside others and push each other to continue to work hard and be the best that we can. Martial arts goes beyond just keeping in shape and learning how to fight and defend yourself; it truly becomes a lifestyle, a lifestyle that is about respect, camaraderie, kindness, and love. It truly creates bonds between people that you can’t find anywhere else. The amount of love and respect that floats between students can be felt in class, during belt tests, and even when attending tournaments and competing against others we have never met. The values of respect taught in karate affects not only how we train and fight, but it changes how we view others and essentially who we are outside the studio as a friend, son, daughter, parent, student, and so on.

Not only has martial arts had an effect on my physical life and health, but it has changed my spiritual life as well. In karate, I’m always reminded of the verses in Ephesians 6:10-20. These verses talk about putting on the full spiritual armor of God so that we can fight against the devil’s schemes. One thing that is often prevalent in our lives as Christians is spiritual warfare. Our fight is not just against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces that we often can’t see. These verses remind me to protect myself with truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, and the Word of God, which is our Sword.  As I have learned different tools to fight physically, I have also learned many different tools to fight spiritually.    

As I have taken this big step in my journey in martial arts, I am reminded of this community and all the people who have influenced me along the way.  Even though I have had to learn to discipline and push myself to earn each belt, I am also aware that I am reliant on others to grow!  I think of my instructors in Mexico, other ABKA instructors, every person I have trained alongside, the students I teach, and MOST importantly my mom who is my main instructor. I would not have been able to accomplish what I have- a black belt in both karate and martial arts-or grown in all the ways I have, if it wasn’t for these people who have been and continue to train and teach me.

Buckthorn

A former pastor friend of mine once wrote a sermon likening the invasive species buckthorn to sin.  Once in an area, invasive species like buckthorn tend to crowd out native plants and take over, choking the life and viability out of other plants and trees. According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, buckthorn:

• “threatens the future of forests, wetlands, prairies, and other natural habitats.
• out-competes native plants for nutrients, light, and moisture.
• degrades wildlife habitat.
• contributes to erosion by out-competing plants on the forest floor that help hold soil in place.
• serves as host to other pests, such as crown rust fungus and soybean aphid.
• creates messy fruits that stain sidewalks and driveways.
• lacks “natural controls,” such as insects or disease that would curb its growth.”

Buckthorn is aggressive and has extensive dense root systems that don’t want to let go.  Sounds (and looks) a lot like sin, doesn’t it?  Sin can be invasive, aggressive, erosive, and dangerous, inviting all sorts of nasty other pests to invade/infest, all the while choking out life and good things. 

Shortly after I heard this sermon, I was determined to rid my yard of buckthorn and my life of sin.  I went to town, identifying buckthorn which had sprouted up on my property, cutting it down, painting herbicide on stumps left behind.  I pulled countless baby buckthorn out by hand.  The most memorable part of this season came at the tail end.  Spiritually I had been doing a lot of work forgiving and addressing wounds of my past, some of which were father wounds I had carried since childhood.  Of course, the Lord would orchestrate it so that my father helped me to pull and dig out the last and largest stump.  The significance of this natural and spiritual buckthorn removal in this manner was not lost on me.  I have been so thankful for what the Lord did then and as I continue to pull new baby buckthorn shoots year after year.

Sin, like buckthorn, can creep back into our lives if we’re not actively guarding against it.  Recently, I’ve been on the search for an accountability partner.  I’ve recognized some unhealthy sin patterns in my life, particularly in my thought life, that I know need to change.  I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and praying about this and I know it’s too big for me to handle it on my own.  Interestingly, I also began a yard project this summer, converting a large section of my front yard to native landscape.  In the midst of this project, near the property line I noticed—you guessed it—a large fruiting buckthorn tree which had expanded over my yard and was dropping berries over a fertile soil bed, endangering my new project.  Yikes!  I’m not sure if this was the first year the tree bore fruit or if it was the fungus that wiped out many lilacs that made this tree suddenly so noticeable.  Underneath were countless berries and a plethora of buckthorn shoots which had sprouted.  Much like my sin problem, I felt overwhelmed at how to get rid of all of it—where could I begin?I knew if I left the shoots they would grow into trees, produce berries, and take over my yard.  I had to remove them, and more importantly, I had to remove the tree.  I knew this would take quite a long time and I kept thinking of my friend’s sermon and my own sin issues surfacing in time with the latest buckthorn invasion.  I asked the Lord to speak to me as I began the removal process.   In the natural, I put in a good number of hours, hand pulling small buckthorn shoots, sometimes using a shovel.  I swept up multiple five-gallon buckets of berries to prevent them from taking root.  I prayed for favor with the neighbor and asked if I could remove the buckthorn tree and felt I needed to offer to help remove buckthorn from her property since I was pointing all of it out to her.  The Lord heard my prayer and the neighbor was happy for the help with the tree, which a friend helped me cut down at the end of September.  There is still much to be done, but headway has been made. 

In the midst of the buckthorn removal, I felt the Lord was pointing out things I should learn that apply to both buckthorn (removal) as well as sin:

1. I can’t do it alone: whether removing buckthorn or dealing with sin, I need community—at least one other person to partner with.  When the buckthorn is overwhelming, a second pair of hands is truly a gift.  The same is true with sin:  I John 1:9: If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  I believe that confession is certainly to God, but sometimes it helps to have someone else hear us.  Additionally, for some things, it is difficult to hold ourselves accountable; we need each other, a trusted friend or partner to encourage us and help us conquer. 
2. I have to be able to identify and distinguish between native/good plants and buckthorn, or spiritually speaking, identify truth from lies. Pulling good plants along with the buckthorn because we can’t tell which is which potentially causes more harm to the environment (parable of wheat and tares?).  When dealing with my sin issues, it is sometimes tempting to become introspective in ways that are not beneficial.  A friend of mine calls this “navel gazing.”  That helps no one and can easily confuse us and blind us to truth, particularly the truth of our identity in Christ.  We’re meant to gaze on Jesus—keeping our eyes fixed on Him. 
3. Prayer plays a key role. In the natural, I prayed for favor for my conversation with my neighbor because I knew it was possible she could tell me she loved buckthorn and would refuse to take the tree down.  I was up against an unknown and needed the Lord’s favor with her.  In the spiritual, I can’t give up praying for victory in the area of my sin.  Sometimes I grow tired of praying for the same thing over and over again, but Luke 11 reminds me that I need to be persistent in my prayer.
4. Last but not least, as everyone probably already knows, I have to get rid of the buckthorn in my own yard before I can attempt to get rid of the speck of buckthorn in my neighbor’s yard.

I truly hope your yards are free of buckthorn and your lives are free of sin.  Since the latter is impossible this side of heaven, may you find yourselves in a good place: in community that can help decipher truth from lies and is well versed in prayer.