Purity of Heart is to will one thing

“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” (Romans 7:15)

Well-known words from the Apostle Paul, but when I hear them, Paul is not the first person who comes to mind. They sound to me like the confession of an addict.

The face I see is a man I knew as Johnny Loco. I normally change names when I tell these sorts of stories, but in this case, I don’t think I ever knew his real name. ‘Johnny Loco’ was the name he gave me, and with addicted people, you never know.

Of course, Johnny insisted he was clean when we met. He said he’d been sober for months but couldn’t get work because everyone knew he’d done prison time and didn’t trust him. He was living on the street, which he said would likely drive him back to crime. He asked for a short stay in our ‘detox room’ that we’d set up at the back of the rectory. I said ‘yes’.

I also found Johnny a part-time job at a local carwash owned by a friend, but within a week he’d been sacked. He was late every day, left early and was always sick. “One hundred per cent he’s still got an addiction,” the manager told me. I should have listened. But Johnny always had a convincing explanation, and he was so profuse in his gratitude for every kindness we showed him. Then things started going missing.

Jewellery disappeared first, and then my wife’s camera, and we noticed the bars on one of our windows seemed to have been prized open with a crowbar. I confronted Johnny about it and he broke down crying – “How could I think I would do such a thing to you after all the kindness you have shown me?”

I believed him. I embraced him. I apologised. Then the police investigator came around, went into the detox room, lifted the mattress on Johnny’s bed, and found all the pawn shop receipts.

“For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” (Romans 7:15)

Was Saint Paul an addict?

I don’t think they had crack or heroin in Paul’s day, and despite his advice that “a little wine is good for the stomach” (1 Timothy 5:23), I doubt very much that he had a drinking problem.

Jesus and His disciples were accused of drunkenness (Matthew 11:19; Acts 2:13), and Paul had plenty of enemies who questioned his piety and mocked his appearance (2 Corinthians 10:10). If Paul had been known to overindulge, we would have heard about it.

No, I don’t think Paul was an addict. Conversely though, I do suspect that the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) and the developers of the 12-step programme were students of Saint Paul.

If you’re not familiar with the 12-step programme that is foundational to AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) and NA (Narcotics Anonymous) and GA (Gamblers Anonymous) and all the ‘anonymous’ groups, the first steps are:

We admit we are powerless and that our lives have become unmanageable
We believe that a power greater than ourselves can restore us to sanity.
We make a decision to turn our lives over to God as we understand God.

That sounds a lot like Saint Paul, so it shouldn’t surprise us that both Bill Wilson and Dr Robert Holbrook Smith, the co-founders of Alcoholics Anonymous, grew up as devout Congregationalists in Vermont (USA) and were both influenced by ‘The Oxford Group’ that emphasised personal transformation through spiritual principles.

I should add here that most of my AA and NA friends are not members of any church. Indeed, a great many addicts feel they have been judged and damaged by the established church. Even so, I think they would find a friend in Saint Paul – a man who understood the war inside the human heart.

“For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” (Romans 7:15)

Whether or not we’ve ever lived with addiction, I suspect that Paul’s testimony to his internal struggle resonates with all of us to some extent.

Saint James refers to it as ‘double-mindedness’ (James 1:8, 4:8), where our minds are going back and forth between the thing we feel like doing and the thing we know we ought to be doing.

Kierkegaard framed it slightly differently. “Purity of heart”, he said, “is to will one thing”, because the only one thing we can will is the right thing, as any other thing leaves our hearts in a state of internal conflict (willing two things at the same time).

“For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self,” says Saint Paul, “but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. (Romans 7:22-23)

It was at least five years between when we found the receipts under Johnny’s mattress till the time I saw him again. I was in my office, and he turned up at my front door looking very nervous. He told me he’d been driving around the block multiple times, trying to summon up the courage to see me.

He didn’t ask for anything from me this time apart from forgiveness. Indeed, he said that it had been after that time with me that he had changed. He’d gone back to prison, but there he had struggled to come to terms with the love that had been shown to him and the betrayal he’d committed, and he’d reached that point where he admitted his powerlessness and handed himself over to God as he understood God.

“Wretched person that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:24-25)

Our Sunday Eucharist

We celebrated another wonderful Sunday Eucharist from the wild bushlands of Binacrombi last weekend, though I must apologise for not being as attentive as I normally am to all the commentary from our online community. We were having some technical issues. Additionally, though, we had so much energetic input from the four of us on the panel – Rev. John Jegasothy, Pastor Eric Fistler, Rev. Joy and me – that I found it hard to divert my attention from the discussion.

I’ve included an edited 19-minute segment of our Bible Banter on the Genesis 22 passage – the story of Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac. It was the same passage I focused on in last week’s video sermon, so I hadn’t anticipated we’d be discussing it at all. Even so, everyone felt a need to have their say about that Bible story, and I think, of four of us on the panel, three of us felt that Abraham must have misheard God when he sensed he’d been commanded to sacrifice his son. I’ll let you watch the recording to find out who held to the more traditional interpretation of the passage.

The two most popular short videos are pasted directly below. By far the most popular this last week was the recording of my prayer for Dr Hassoun, as he is currently facing court in Damascus, and many people are evidently praying for him. The situation distresses me enormously, though it has been encouraging to see that there are countless other people online who love Dr Hassoun and who recognise the pure and gentle character of the man.

I have no expectation of justice. My prayer is that the popularity of Syria’s former Mufti is such that the authorities will consider it sensible not to punish him further. That is indeed my daily prayer, and I would appreciate you joining me in praying for the life and health of this dear man.

This coming Sunday is the first Sunday of the month, and so I’ll be privileged to have Tom Toby and David Baldwin back with me on the panel.

Join us from midday on Sunday on Rumble. Yes, you can also join via Facebook, Twitter (X), LinkedIn, Instagram, Faithia, and StreamYard, but if you haven’t settled anywhere yet, I’d encourage you to choose Rumble.

To qualify for their creator programme, I need to have a minimum number of subscribers watching for a minimum number of hours each month, so the more of you good people I have on board with me on Rumble, the better.

Let me work your corner

If you’d like to see my work continue, please click here to make a one-off donation. If you can afford a monthly contribution, sign up at Patreon.com and choose either:

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Enrol in the Fighting Fit training program
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All of the above +
One-on-one mentoring via email, phone, or video.

Heavyweight—$100/month (in-person mentoring)

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Training with Father Dave’s Old School Boxing Academy

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All of the above +
One weekend per month at Binacrombi Bush Camp.

Every dollar helps keep the wheels turning—the websites, the newsletters, the broadcasts, and the boxing.

What’s On?

Saturday, July 4th – Boxing fundraiser at Arena Boxing in Bondi from 10am
Sunday, July 5th – Our Eucharist from noon @ thesundayeucharist.com, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, Faithia, StreamYard and Rumble
Tuesday, July 7th – Boxing at the Mundine Gym in Redfern from 7 pm.
Thursday, July 2nd – Noon Bible Study @www.thesundayeucharist.com/bible
Thursday, July 2nd – Boxing at Brofit Gym in Bankstown, from 6.30 pm
Sunday, July 19th – Hussain Day at 81 Clifton Ave, Kemps Creek, from 3 to 5 pm.

A lot of things are changing for me at the moment. I’m living in a wonderful new house in Concord, and I’m in the process of transitioning my boxing to the Brofit Gym in Bankstown.

Part of the reason for the move is that my key boxing student at the Redfern gym, Ying Wan Li Xiong (pictured above), flew back to China this week, and I think Bankstown may be an easier location for others who are keen to train with me.

Besides that, I strongly support the vision of Tevita and Elizabith Funa – the managers of Brofit Gym – who are trying to combine their love for boxing with their commitment to the community and to men’s mental health in particular.

Let me know if you’re interested in joining me at Brofit. I’ve scheduled at least one session there this coming Thursday, but nothing is fixed at this stage. Let me know if you’re keen and we’ll make it work for all of us.

The other boxing event mentioned above is a fundraiser being organised by our friend, Nathan Nicholas – champion boxer and a key member of Team Binacrombi.

Nathan will be doing 40 consecutive rounds tomorrow, and I’ll be trying to get there in time to both to say a prayer and do a few of those rounds. I did ask Nathan whether there was a poster explaining the fundraiser, and he suggested I share this Instagram video (which is of him boxing). I may have missed something.

The other event I’m very keen to support is Hussain Day, which is being organised by our friends from the Muhammadi Welfare Association of Kemps Creek.

I’m still relishing the memories of the wonderful event they organised for us on the evening of Christmas Day last year. They are an extraordinarily gracious and hospitable community, and they are keen for all of us to attend this event.

I asked one of the key organisers, Qasim Abbas, to give me a brief summary that I could include in this newsletter, and he gave me this:

“Hussain Day 2026 is an initiative that brings together people of different faiths with community leaders to examine how our common core values like justice, solidarity and service, and to discuss how we can collectively put these into action.”

Click on this link and reserve yourself a free ticket to the event. Qasim tells me that he’s put aside twenty-five tickets specifically for the Fighting Fathers Community!

That’s more than enough for today, sisters and brothers. I’ll hope to see you soon at one of these wonderful events, or perhaps in the ring at Bankstown, and, hopefully, online this Sunday as we share the Eucharist together. 😊

May the Lord bless and strengthen you for the work to which you have been called.