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Lesson Learned from Nacho Libre- Part 1

In order to fully appreciate this post, I suggest you watch the film “Nacho Libre” starring Jack Black now available on DVD. Some of the content may contain spoilers, so don’t be mad at me if I blow it for you.

“Precious Father, why have you given me this desire to wrestle and then made me such a stinky warrior?” – Ignacio (Nacho) from Nacho Libre

nacho-libre1.jpgThere are two main points to pull out from this quote.

First, Nacho is right…God did give him the desire that he has. He recognizes that this was something that was given to him. All too often we dismiss our desires as selfish and assume that they couldn’t possibly be what God wants. Psalm 37:4 states, “Take delight in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.” God allows us to have desires- that’s not a bad thing, that’s…a good thing…unless of course, your desire is bad. In Nacho’s case, he just wants to wrestle and perform. His acknowledgement that God gave him the desire is right on target.

Second, do you ever feel like a stinky warrior? I know I do. God has given me desires but sometimes I feel totally inadequate. I say things like, “Why me?” “I did this.” “I didn’t do that.” “That other person is so much better at it.” If you watch the movie, you will see that Nacho isn’t a great wrestler and certainly doesn’t have the ideal build, but he does connect with the audience. He doesn’t win, but he connects. As a wrestling fan myself, I can tell you this is the truth. A wrestler can appear to have it all but is missing that intangibles. Jesus called average men with no apparent qualifications to come and be his disciples. They had to feel unworthy and in comparison to Jesus, like “stinky warriors.” Yet they were still made useful by God. 2000+ years later, there reputation and work remains and I’d say they did a great job.Later in the movie, Nacho becomes an admired warrior despite his shortcomings for a couple of reasons:

  1. He took the focus off of him and onto a more noble purpose.
  2. When he became well-intended, people wanted to follow and cheer that. He gained support from those close to him as well as from his wrestling fans.

This is something we all can learn from.

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