When I was young in the world I had seen a movie that stayed in my memory and helped me get started on my solitude of life when I was laying the foundation.
It was a movie with two boxers fighting each other. The coach of the younger one before the fight said to his athlete:
"This boxing art foreshadows sacrifices. You won't drink, you won't smoke, you won't stay up all night, you won't go with the other sex, in order to have health which will help you fight and win! If you don't keep these, you will be a failure."
Then this boxer did not follow any of what his coach told him. And his coach saw him and checked him:
"You are crazy! We are not going to go that way! And you are wasting your time and I, my words..."
He reacted as a boxer and threw a punch at his coach, knocking him down.
But after a few days it was time for the match. He goes to battle without the coach next to him. The other opponent had an assistant and his coach to advice him, stimulate him, strengthen him, giving him air. That's why when the match started and as it was, from the very beginning , he was constantly losing ground and being defeated by the other.
His coach was sitting high on the amphitheater and watched from afar and was distressed to see him lose and be hit by the other. He knew that his morale had fallen and that he could not win. Seeing that the end was approaching, he ran down the ring, approached him during the break, talks in his ear, advises him and gives him courage.
That was it! His pupil stands up, fights well and in the final round knocks out his opponent and wins the match!
That is why every person must have a spiritual father, to guide him, obey and confess to him, in order to defeat the devil and win the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen.
Elder Ephraim of Arizona
translated Orthodox Parables and Stories
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