The Essence of Training

Dallas Willard describes the spiritual disciplines as those activities within our power that we undertake that will enable us to do that which is beyond our power to do directly. In Willard's construct (and I agree with his assessment and am finding his writings to be both convicting and encouraging), being Christlike in our thoughts, words, and actions is impossible for us directly, but by exercise of the spiritual disciplines, we so train our bodies, minds, and spirits in such as way that Christlikeness is the result. We do what we can today--read the Bible, pray, meditate on truth, serve--and over time Christlikeness emerges. I believe that Willard would concur that the transformation is so incremental that we may only see it clearly upon reflection, but it is real nonetheless.

Further, without the training effect of the spiritual disciplines, we will not be prepared or able to do and be what we are called to do and be any more than most of us could jump off of the couch and make it to the finish line of a marathon.

I make my annual half marathon trek to Florida to run on the 14th. The Holiday Halfathon starts at Madeira Beach and is my second favorite race of all time. (First favorite race so far is the Mora Half Marathon. First favorite run is around Bayou Texar in Pensacola, Florida.) The weather has been good every year that I have run and the course is pretty and flat :-) It would be a bit ridiculous to simply show up at the start line and expect to finish the race, much less to finish well. 13.2 miles is simply too much to tackle right off the couch. But by training in advance, bit by bit, I will put myself in a position to be able to do that which I could not do without investing the time in the training.

The training effect is incremental. I cannot go from running one mile one day to being able to run a strong ten miles the next day. But by running a few miles each day, and slowly building that training base, before long I can move from the one mile to the ten without too much pain. I find that my capacity to do that which I want to do increases almost without my awareness. But I wonder how often people never get off the couch because they know that they cannot run a marathon. I wonder how often I have--consciously or subconsciously--not prayed for five minutes because I could not pray all night long; or not read a page of the Bible because I didn't have enough time to read enough or do it "right."

I would encourage the person who doesn't want to get off of the couch to start with a walk around the block. Who cares if you can't run a marathon today. I suppose that it would be prudent to take my own advice in other areas of life. Small steps are better than no steps.

Pressing On!