Say When | Yesterday Was Easy - Episode 05

If you saw the very first episode of this show, you may remember me saying that I would be quoting

Tombstone at some point. Well, this is the first of many to come. Welcome to Yesterday Was Easy.

One of my favorite lines from the classic western is from Doc Holliday, played by Val Kilmer.

It's a simple, yet impactful line. He actually says it two different times, both to the same villain,

Johnny Ringo. Both times he says it, he is ready to duel in a gunfight. Historically, Doc Holliday, a dentist by trade, was notoriously one of the fastest gunslingers during his time.

I am in no way saying that we should go around challenging bad guys to gunfights, but I am saying that there is a principle behind this succinct phrase that we, as Christian men, should absolutely adopt.

Saith William implies that Doc was ready, always ready, that he was prepared, and that he had practiced.

Being always ready can and should be holistically applied to our lives, undergirding us spiritually, mentally, and physically.

Adopting this mindset indicates that we have put in the study, work, blood, sweat, and tears ahead of time.

Doc Holliday could say it because he was confident in his abilities. He was confident in his abilities, not simply because they were

God -given, but because of the hours of time and thought he put into perfecting his skills.

You don't just magically wake up one morning the fastest draw in the wild, wild west. This requires practice.

Practice? We talking about practice? We talking about practice man? Yes we are, and lots of it.

Preparation, preparation, and even more preparation. There are at least three areas of life we can apply this principle to, but as I just mentioned, the three specific aspects

I want to look at are spiritual, mental, and physical. 1 Peter 3 .15

says, 2 But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make an apologia or a reasoned offense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.

Yet do it with gentleness and respect. Scripture could not have been more clear.

If you are a Christian, you should be always ready to give a defense of the faith. This is not a suggestion, but a command.

You were not born the world's greatest apologist. This takes time and requires study, practice, and preparation, and involves going out on the street, preaching the gospel, and engaging in dialogue, thereby sharpening your apologetic acumen and growing in your knowledge, wisdom, and understanding.

Likewise, mental and physical preparation requires just as much work and attention to detail.

I mentioned this in episode 2, and I plan to discuss it again later in greater detail, but defending yourself and your family requires you to be both mentally and physically ready.

If you carry a weapon, whether it be a firearm, a blade, or even some pepper spray, you better know how to use it.

You had better be comfortable handling any of these tools, and just like Doc Holliday, you had better be continually practicing, so that when you are presented with an opportunity to use one, you can confidently state, say when.

Conversely, you should never carry a weapon if you do not know how to use it, which means that knowing how to use it indicates you have spent time practicing with it.

If you carry a firearm, that should mean that you have spent time at the range running hundreds, if not thousands of rounds through it, you've practiced drawing from the holster, and you've dry fired.

If you carry a blade, it should also mean that you've practiced drawing it and maybe even spent time with a dummy blade.

Being mentally prepared involves a lot of thought and envisioning scenarios in your mind.

This may look like working through real life situations in your mind, determining how you would respond if faced with a difficult situation to make, or knowing where your exits are when you enter in a room, especially in public.

It means not allowing your ego to get in the way. This is another conversation I will have later, but the point

I want to make is to never allow that three letter word to get the best of you. It is always better to live to face another day if at all possible.

Do not be a hero unless you have to be. Turn the other cheek unless you have no other option.

Defending your pride is not worth it if you lose your life or end up in jail. Your family needs you.

In Matthew 10, 16, Christ told his disciples, Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

The world is full of wolves who want to devour you. Being a godly prepared man does not necessarily mean being a tough guy, but wise and innocent, not looking for trouble and quickly deflecting it when it arrives.

To quote Doc Holliday again, he said, Conflict follows wrongdoing as surely as flies follow the herd.

Just like a herd of cattle, conflict stinks. If you're not looking for trouble, you should avoid conflict.

Now that does not mean that conflict will not arise, but if you are mentally prepared when it does, you will act wisely and therefore be innocent as a dove.

Before closing, there is something else you should know about Doc Holliday. One of the reasons he was always ready for trouble is because he was always looking for trouble, thereby completely ignoring the aforementioned verse.

Famed gunfighter and Dodge City Sheriff Bat Masterson once wrote this about Doc, Holliday had a mean disposition and an ungovernable temper and under the influence of liquor was a dangerous man.

Physically, Doc Holliday was a weakling who could not have whipped a healthy 15 -year -old boy in a go -as -you -please fist fight, and no one knew this better than himself, and the knowledge of this fact was perhaps why he was so ready to resort to a weapon of some kind whenever he got himself into difficulty.

He was hot -headed and impetuous and very much given to both drinking and quarreling, and among men who did not fear him was very much disliked.

Holliday seemed to be absolutely unable to keep out of trouble for any great length of time.

He would no sooner be out of one scrape before he was in another, and the strange part of it is, he was more often in the right than in the wrong, which has rarely ever been the case with a man who was continually getting himself into trouble.

The moral of the story is to be always ready as Doc was, but unlike him, always be ready to look for a way out of trouble as well.

Be wise, be innocent, be ready. Along these lines, George Washington once said,

If we desire to avoid insult, we must be able to repel it. If we desire to secure peace, one of the most powerful instruments of our rising prosperity, it must be known that we are at all times ready for war.