OPINION:
On Aug. 19, 1973, the day before my ninth birthday, “Enter the Dragon,” starring the one and only Bruce Lee, premiered in Los Angeles.
Soon the movie was released in theaters across the United States and a legend was born. Before the release of this one-of-a-kind movie, Bruce Lee was known in the United States as Kato, the high-flying, fist-throwing sidekick of the Green Hornet in the 1960s television series. He was another overlooked, underestimated Asian actor typecast by the largely white Hollywood community.
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But “Enter the Dragon” hit the movie establishment like a one-inch punch to the solar plexus and catapulted Bruce Lee to the upper echelon of Hollywood fame. Sadly, he died a month before the Hollywood premiere, so he never got the satisfaction of seeing the full impact of his brilliant acting and martial arts legacy as it spread around the world.
The movie, made for less than $1 million, went on to make hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide. It ushered in a whole new genre of martial arts movies in Hollywood. Chuck Norris, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Jackie Chan, and many, many others owe much of their career success to Bruce Lee.
One of my favorite scenes in “Enter the Dragon” is when Bruce Lee takes on a continuous stream of more than 50 attackers — sadly, I counted them — using various weapons. But his final weapon in the culminating scene of the four-minute-long fight — sadly, I timed it — was the nunchaku. Today, they are often called nunchucks.
If you’re not familiar with martial arts, nunchucks originated as Japanese fighting weapons. They consist of two 12- to 14-inch-long pieces of rounded wood connected by a chain or rope. These two sticks are whipped in a continuous circular motion around one’s body creating a sort of defensive shield against an attacker. They can also be used offensively to hit, block, or immobilize an opponent. Those skilled in nunchucks look quite intimidating as they work this classic weapon with speed and precision.
In the movie, Bruce Lee worked them so blindingly fast that his attacker stood with a look of awe on his face before being knocked out cold by these whirling sticks of destruction.
The nunchuck scene — which made up less than 30 seconds in Lee’s four-minute fight — hooked me.
What’s the first thing I did as a young, impressionable preteen after watching this movie for the first time? I, along with tens of thousands of other Bruce Lee wannabees from across the United States, bought nunchucks.
The problem was simple. I didn’t know how to work them properly, which led to many bruises and Christian school kid curse words like “darn it,” “dang it,” and “son of a gun.”
While “Enter the Dragon” inspired me, it was a high schooler named Rodney who trained me.
Rodney frequently hung out in our neighborhood with his best friend, Vince. Rodney could work nunchucks. He was good. Doubly impressive was the fact that he could do two at a time. He worked them so fast, you could barely see them as he spun them around. As a third-degree black belt, he was the closest thing I knew to a martial arts expert. So I asked him to help me. He wholeheartedly agreed.
Rodney positioned me in front of him. Five feet apart from each other, we stood face-to-face while holding our nunchucks — his were way cooler than mine.
“Do what I do,” he said.
Starting in slow motion, he covered the basic nunchuck movements one by one. I mirrored him move for move until I had the first one down perfectly. Then Rodney added another slightly harder move.
With each sequential move, Rodney said, “Do what I do.” I mirrored him until I had it down.
After each martial arts lesson, I’d spend hours in my unfinished basement room, where I had plenty of space to move, practicing the nunchuck moves I had just learned.
This went on week after week and month after month until I began to master this weapon.
Surprisingly, Rodney’s training approach was closer to the form of “discipleship” described in the New Testament than most discipleship strategies today.
The Western idea of discipling focuses on information. The Eastern idea of discipling focuses on formation. To disciple is to form a student — to mold them into the image of their sensei, their master, their teacher.
That’s why Jesus said to His disciples, “The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher” (Luke 6:40).
As Christians, our master is Jesus. We are to mirror His every move. As 1 John 2:6 reminds us, “Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.” Being Jesus’ disciples means seeking — in the power of the Holy Spirit — to live as Jesus did. Being His disciples means following Him.
When we read the Gospels, we can, in a sense, hear Jesus through His Holy Spirit calling, “Do what I do.”
This brand of following was literal (to go where He went), actual (to do what He did), and nuanced (to do what He did in the way that He did it).
Like an apprentice following his boss or a kung fu student following her sensei, the disciples followed Jesus. How do we know this? Here are just a few instances that show how the disciples, filled with the power of the Holy Spirit after Jesus ascended into heaven, followed His example:
Jesus was so passionate about God’s honor, He cleansed the Temple (see John 2:13-22). The disciples became so passionate about God’s honor, they cleansed the church of Ananias and Sapphira (see Acts 5:1-11).
Jesus was so compassionate, He touched and healed a leper (see Mark 1:40-45). The disciples were so compassionate, they touched and healed a man who could not walk (see Acts 3:6-10).
Jesus was so bold, He stood up against the religious rulers and confronted them (see Matthew 23:1-33). The disciples were so bold that they stood up against these same religious leaders and disobeyed their command to keep quiet about Jesus (see Acts 5:40-42).
The disciples followed Jesus and in the process became like Him. Even the Sanhedrin, the same Jewish rulers who plotted Jesus’ death on the cross, noticed: “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).
The disciples copied the moves of their Messiah, and it was obvious to everyone around them.
Never stop pursuing Jesus. Never stop following your sensei. Think of Him, learn from Him, and imitate Him — until you are fully like Him.
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Adapted from “Radical like Jesus: 21 Challenges to Live a Revolutionary Life” by Greg Stier, releasing in August 2024.
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