A Letter to Chuck Norris
Dear Chuck,
It was so good to hear from you and even better to hear the good news about a beautiful Christian wife, twins on the way, and entering a whole new and exciting passage of life. When you get back to Tarzana and working out again, I hope you’ll let me jump in a workout or two, once and a while. That would give me a great motivation for my training now.
When you would come to Georgia and we’d workout in front of our students, you would say, “Let’s do leg raises .”
That was OK with me, “Ya , OK … let’s do it. How many are we going to do
… 25,50 … go on; you name it.”
You’d say, “Oh … I don’t know, how about 500.”
Man, I was dying at 100 and you were just pumping them out … all 500.
So the next time you came I was ready. I was practicing leg raises every day.
So when you said what do you want to do, “I said LEG RAISES.”
You’d say, “Naw … we did that last time let’s do chin-ups.”
And then you’d do a million chin-ups, in all kinds of weird ways.
But I’ll be ready for you next time.
I wanted to send you one of my “man-to-man” messages. I have dozens of these “man-to-man” messages that I share with people with like life-situations.
“Home Safe” is my life in a nutshell but I don’t send it to you because I think you have the same circumstances.
But as we talked the other night I was made aware of how we all are in the most exciting part our life. We now have “experience” to pass on, and that experience will influence lives that will, in turn, influence other lives long after we are gone.
David Mammot, a New York playwright said, “What men need most, is man ‘s approval. ” And I heard that coming from you as well. I believe men are so eager to talk about God … if only someone or something would give them “permission”.
I was getting ready to fight a Cuban in-mate in Dekalb County jail one day. I criticized the method by which he killed someone and this made him mad. As our argument progressed I said something out of the blue, “When I flush your head down that toilet, whose going to be around to teach your son about Jesus?”
His hand went into his jump suit real quick and he said, “What?’ And I thought, wow I messed up this time. But when he pulled his hand out, he was holding a small pocket size new testament Bible. There were about 40 inmates jammed into this really small room and we were waiting for a bus to take us to the court house.
Everyone turned toward the action. Nearly all of them put their hand in their jumpsuits and each one pulled out a Bible. “We all began talking about the peace of Jesus Christ. I mean, we were down and dirty, matted hair, or com rolls and dred locks, bad breath, tattoos, and stinky bodies … all standing there talking about “loving one another”.
When the guards came and unlocked the cell door to take us to court, we all ignored them, as someone was reading a scripture. The guards were yelling at us but a huge black man said above their yells, “Who wants to pray?”
We all shuffled around until everyone was able to grab someone’s hand, and we stood there and we prayed … and very shortly, the guards quit yelling at us and let us finish.
I realized then, how many men want someone to get them started … someone to open them up … some other person they consider to be a “man”, to give them “permission” to talk, with other men, about God.
I have this picture of you and Gina, a man and woman united in Christ, and working together for His glory, and I think how I would give anything to have a Christian woman in my life.
You are very lucky.
But as I think more about it … she’ll have to be beautiful and tolerant and be able to put up with me and she better be a good cook. So, on second thought, I guess it’ll be just God and me.
But you are truly blessed.
When you said, “My wife is a Christian” the first thought that came to my mind was … are you a Christian? But talking with you in those few minutes, I didn’t have to ask that question.
Some of us are Christians in talk only, and some of us are Christian in our walk. And some Christians, like you, are Christians in their heart.
Those are people who take great pride in their wife’s support of Christ as they support their wife’s belief as you did on TBN. They are the people who live in conformity to the principals of Jesus Christ and support His position, as you did on the episode of Walker that you mentioned.
I heard someone say, “If you were accused of being a Christian, could someone find enough evidence to convict you?”
And a young fellow came into my Bible study that Monday night we talked and said, “If someone who knew me, and knew how I live, had to ask if I were a Christian, I would have no right to tell him I was.”
And I borrow this a lot, “If someone knew you, would they want to know Christ?”
Well, my friend, I think you would stand convicted. I’m sure if you checked for your name in God’s Book of Life … you’d see your name written in gold. And can you imagine what power you could give to the name of Jesus Christ … just by doing the things you are doing.
What a man of God … co-staring in a “series” that will never end. God Bless you Chuck.
Your friend,
Dick
