SHOWING UP AT THE GYM
Talking and Listening to God -- Part 4
Isaac Butterworth
December 19, 2010
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (NIV)
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
I once read about a certain Mr. Wahlstrom who purchased an old bombsight and took it apart to see what made it work. As he began to put it back together, he decided to add to it some spare parts he had from other projects. Over time, friends and neighbors took an interest in the matter and started bringing him parts and pieces, which he incorporated into his contraption. Over a period of about ten years, he added to his machine hundreds of wheels and cogs, belts and whistles and gears and who knows what all until the thing became ‘a marvel to behold.’ He would throw the switch, and the machine’s thousand parts would begin to move. Wheels turned, lights flashed, bells rang, and belts whirred. The device came to be known as ‘Wahlstrom’s Wonder.’ It was incredible. The only thing is: It didn’t do anything! It just went through the motions. (Gene Bartlett, The Audacity of Preaching, 1962, pp. 64f.).
It makes you wonder: Is that what we’re doing? Are we just go through the motions? The church has been commissioned by Jesus himself to make disciples, but do we do that? Do we make disciples? In order to answer that question, I guess we have to ask a prior question: ‘What is a disciple?’ What does a disciple look like? What does a disciple do?
Is a disciple simply someone who goes to church or attends Sunday School? Is a disciple nothing more than someone who is busy doing ‘church work?’ There is that, of course. We can’t very well be a church unless we come together. And there is work that needs doing. But do you remember how, a few months back, we said ‘the three B’s’ are not enough? Bodies, buildings, and budgets will always be with us, but they cannot be the reason we exist.
The reason that our church exists is to make disciples. So, what is a disciple? I want to propose to you today that a disciple of Jesus is, first of all, someone who is learning to live life like Jesus and from Jesus. Not, let me be clear, someone who is learning simply to be religious. We have a tendency to compartmentalize our lives into ‘the religious’ and ‘the secular,’ into ‘the material’ and ‘the spiritual’ -- and that tendency is nothing more than a sad caricature of what Christianity really is. We have church and we have the rest of life. We do things one way on Sunday; we do them another way on Monday. But to be a disciple of Jesus is to learn how to live all of life and to learn how to live it from Jesus.
And so, there must be certain practices. And this is the first component of discipleship. You and I learn to do certain things. And the things we do, the practices we embrace, are not difficult, and they are not many. I will start with just four: go to church, build relationships with God’s people, read the Bible and pray, and serve others. That is, involve yourself in worship, in fellowship, in the Word, and in witness. Or, as I put recently: warm a pew, warm your heart, illumine your mind, and illuminate the world, or at least your little corner of it. Those are the practices we want to put into play.
But they are not enough. Let me tell you why. I know from my own experience that it is possible to go to church every Sunday, to participate in fellowship, to read the Bible consistently, and to serve good causes -- and still be self-centered, mean-spirited, arrogant, and falsely motivated. So, while practices are essential, they are not enough.
And that brings us to the second component of Christian discipleship: progress. And what I mean by progress is discernible movement from one level to another in our love for God and neighbor. We all know that Jesus summarized the whole law of God, that is, God’s will for our lives, in two great commandments: ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’ and ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ We make progress on the path of discipleship as we grow in love.
A few weeks ago, we took the first of these two great commandments -- love God with your whole being -- and we broke it down into four parts: Love God with all your soul; that is, pursue your relationship with God. Love God with all your strength; that is, acknowledge the call to your true vocation. Love God with all your mind; that is, be transformed in your thinking. And love God with all your heart; that is, nurture a heart for others.
These four means of obeying the great commandment parallel the four practices we mentioned earlier. We worship in order to pursue our relationship with God. We serve others in order to acknowledge the call to our true vocation. We study the Bible for the purpose of being transformed in our thinking. And we practice Christian fellowship in order to nurture a heart for others. Do you see how it works?
Showing up at church on a Sunday morning is not an end in itself. Am I glad you come? You bet you’re life I am! I would be very lonely if your weren’t here, and I don’t want to do anything to discourage you from coming. But we can’t satisfy ourselves with nothing more than attendance at a religious assembly. Coming to church serves the end of deepening our experience of God and our relationship to him. Serving others is not simply a means of fulfilling our civic duty; it is a way of becoming like him who ‘did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life’ away (Mark 10:45). Reading and studying the Bible is not something we do simply in order to learn more, even if we’re learning more about God. It’s something we do so that our very way of thinking about things, about anything, is shaped by a biblical world view. We read the Bible so that we may be transformed in our thinking. We join in Christian fellowship not simply so we can spend one more night at the church. We do it to nurture a heart for others. We do it to learn how to relate to others in ways that nurture us and them.
And we learn all these things from Jesus. He is our instructor. He is our coach. You might say he is our personal trainer. That’s not a bad way to put it, because Christian discipleship is a lot like showing up at the gym every day. Only, instead of working on the flexibility of our bodies, or on strength training or endurance, you and I are working on our character. We are trying to become agile in the virtues, the character qualities of Christ. And who better to learn them from than Christ himself?
The apostle Paul describes our life in Christ this very way. In 1 Corinthians 9:24, he asks, ‘Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?’ And he urges us: ‘Run in such a way as to get the prize. And he goes on to tell us what we all know: ‘Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.’ But here’s something we may not have considered: Competitive athletes ‘do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.’
So, we go into training -- just like those who are contending for a trophy of gold that will one day turn to dust. And that’s the third component of discipleship. It requires meaningful practices. It requires meaningful progress. And it requires a meaningful process. We plan our work, and then we work our plan. Discipleship will not happen by accident. Growth in Christlike character will not occur by default. Paul says, ‘I do not run like someone running aimlessly.’ Nor should we. We ought to have a strategy.
And I want to propose one for you. It will require a daily program of exercise. And, like any new habit, it will be difficult to incorporate into your life at first. But with a little discipline and intentionality, you can do it.
What I am suggesting is a four-week program. You can extend it indefinitely, but I want to ask you simply to try it for a month. I want you to ‘show up at the gym,’ you might say, every day -- Monday through Friday -- for four weeks. If you miss a day or two, don’t worry -- and don’t beat yourself up over it. Just pick up where you left off.
Each week, you’re going to work on one virtue, one character quality, or what we might call one ‘grace.’ Each day for a week you’re going to ask God to give you a specific ‘grace,’ to instill in your heart and life a certain virtue, a quality that you can observe in Jesus. You will have a verse or two of Scripture to reflect on each day -- hopefully throughout the day. You might want to write it out on a three-by-five card and carry it with you. But don’t just read it; ask God to make the particular virtue you’re working on a reality in your life.
Then, each night before you go to bed -- and this is the hardest part -- you’re going to sit down with God and review your day. I call this, in fact, a daily review. And it will help if you write down your observations. And here is how I want you do it. I want you to move through seven brief steps. And it shouldn’t take more than fifteen minutes.
First, quiet yourself before God. Just get still and prepare to meet your personal trainer, who, of course, is Jesus. Second, pray and ask God to give you the specific grace, or Christlike quality, that you’re working on for that week. The first week you’ll be working on humility, the second week, generosity, the third week, disciplined speech, and the fourth week, patience. So, ask God for one of these graces. Next, look back over your day and replay in your mind those points along the way at which you exhibited the character quality you are seeking for your life, and thank God for this evidence of His grace. Fourth, replay in your mind those points in the day when you did not exhibit this character quality, and ask God to forgive you and to intensify your desire for this virtue. Fifth, anticipate the day ahead of you, and consider any occasion you may have to exhibit humility or generosity or careful speech or patience -- whatever you’re working on that week. Sixth, ask God to equip you through his Spirit to exhibit the character of Christ in those situations. And, last, conclude your daily review with the Lord’s Prayer, or simply pray in your own words.
Sound regimented? I’m sure it does. But let me ask you: If you were to enroll in a gym and hire a personal trainer, would you be surprised if he or she put you on a daily regimen? No, you would expect it. Why do you think it should be any different in a life of discipleship -- a life of learning how to live and learning it from Jesus?
If you were to sign up for a course, say, in playing the piano or in learning to use a certain software program, or in studying the history of art, or whatever, would it surprise you to have daily assignments which you would be expected to complete? No, you would know that that’s the way people learn. Then why do you think it should be any different in the life of discipleship -- a life of learning how to live and learning it from Jesus?
I have listed for you four virtues -- and, of course, this is nothing more than a starter list, the mere tip of the iceberg -- and I have given you Scripture references for each one. Take one virtue a week,, meditate every day each week on the relevant Scripture, and then do a daily review each night, inviting God to ‘disciple’ you, to ‘discipline’ you in the character of Christ -- one grace at a time. Resolve now that, each day, for the next month, you’re going to show up at the gym.
