What Are You Training For?

So it's January, time to think about the upcoming year, maybe set some goals.  One of my goals each year is to pick a race or two, a 10k run or a short triathalon.  It usually takes me about 12 weeks to start training to be ready to run well.  Training...hmmm...now there's a concept that applies to every area of life, including the spiritual life. 

Because being "saved by grace through faith" in Jesus Christ is central to how Christians understand the process of being made whole, we sometimes shy away from the importance of training to enter more fully our new life in Jesus Christ.  What we often fail to understand is that God's grace uses specific practices (yes, practice is important to life in Jesus) to continue to shape us more and more into the kind of people who love like God, practices like prayer, worship, reading the Bible, serving, receiving communion, and being together in a community.  John Wesley called these "means of grace," or channels through which God has chosen to continue to pour out his saving grace. 

To underscore the importance of training, let's assume you are someone whose hands have morphed into your remote control and cheeto bowl since the endless weeks of college bowl games and that you haven't run a step since Thanksgiving.  Now try running 10 miles.  Chances are not good a) that you will finish and b) that you will finish with positive feelings about running!  Contrast this with what it might be like for you to start by running and walking a mile several times the first week.  Continue by running 2 miles several times the next week and so on and so on, training your body to handle running 10 miles.  The odds are good that a) you will finish and b) that you will finish feeling positive about yourself and your running. 

Some of us are setting new educational goals, desiring to finish a new degree to enhance our careers.  Some of us are setting relationship goals, hoping to become more loving and patient and fun to be around.  Some of us are setting fitness goals, hoping to lose weight or acheive our first marathon or eat healthier.  Some of us are setting the goal of growing more fully in our love relationship with Jesus Christ.  All of these goals will take practice.  Like a baseball player practices batting over and over and over again until his muscles memorize a compact, powerful swing that shoots the ball off the bat like it was shot out of a cannon, so we must practice new ways of being with God, of living in God if we hope to grow more loving like Jesus is loving.  And remember, it's God's work in and through our practices that changes our lives!

What are you training for this new year?  How about your new life in the eternal Kingdom of God?  We'll be talking about this Sunday at my church in Sanford, Florida.  You can also catch this video series "Why Should I Read The Bible?" or see us on facebook. 

Peace of Jesus to you!