TRAINING DAYS

Jeremiah 12:1-14:10; 1 Thessalonians 1:1-2:8; Psalm 79:1-13; Proverbs 24:30-34

“Lord, you always give me justice when I bring a case before you. So let me bring you this complaint: Why are the wicked so prosperous? Why are evil people so happy? ....Then the Lord replied to me, ‘If racing against mere men makes you tired, how will you race against horses? If you stumble and fall on open ground, what will you do in the thickets near the Jordan?”

“As we pray to our God and Father about you, we think of your faithful work, your loving deeds, and the enduring hope you have because of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know, dear brothers and sisters, that God loves you and has chosen you to be his own people…. For when we brought you the Good News, it was not only with words but also with power, for the Holy Spirit gave you full assurance that what we said was true. So you received the message with joy from the Holy Spirit in spite of the severe suffering it brought you. … As a result, you have become an example…, for wherever we go we find people telling us about your faith in God.”

“Let your compassion quickly meet our needs, for we are on the brink of despair. Help us, O God of our salvation! Help us for the glory of your name. Save us and forgive our sins for the honor of your name. Why should pagan nations be allowed to scoff, asking, ‘Where is their God?’”

“I walked by the field of a lazy person, the vineyard of one with no common sense.  I saw that it was overgrown with nettles. It was covered with weeds, and its walls were broken down. Then, as I looked and thought about it, I learned this lesson: A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest—then poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber.”

As a whole, Scripture seems pretty clear that God really does want us to exhaust our own power and lean more fully on Him to get us through our days. This is decidedly not the way most of us usually operate. We hold back a little in reserve for when we really need it. We don’t put all our energy into everyday tasks so we don’t risk giving out before the day’s challenges are done. We tend to let the little things slide; we pick our battles; and in general, we try to stay in control. But what we may also be training ourselves to do, however inadvertently, is to live passionless lives, lives with no focus or true goals. And a passionless life is not much of a life at all, when you get right down to it.

I remember running cross country in my earlier days, where the honored mantra was that we should “pace ourselves.” It did little good to sprint to the front of a long race only to fade in the backstretch. Certainly, logic dictated it was more important to finish well than to establish a prime position off the starting line or over the first mile. But the more I study, the less inclined I am to think that God plans any time at all for us to work our way into the Christian life. There just does not seem to be any acclimation period for a believer. We enter into fellowship with Christ, and we’re immediately commissioned to be disciples. There is no probationary period, no apprenticeship. From the get-go, from the very moment of our salvation, we apparently are to run to win, wire to wire. I get exhausted just thinking about it.

And yet, maybe getting out in the world and seriously testing ourselves is the one sure way to appreciate Christ’s new presence within us. So many times, I have heard recent converts begin to complain after a week or two that they do not feel any different than before they met Jesus. It’s probably because they aren’t doing anything different. They seem to be waiting for a miracle to take hold of them. I think this is just plain old backwards thinking. Once we have opened our hearts to the presence of the Holy Spirit, it is up to us to take hold of the miracle. This is not wresting control away from the Father; it is simply, deliberately getting a grip on ourselves and putting all that we are in His hands on a daily basis. Only in this way will we see the working of the Spirit as we are empowered to do His will. The Spirit is not going to strengthen us to forge ahead with no direction or purpose. He plans to guide us, to run us through our paces, so to speak. But He will wait to begin our life of discipleship until we are ready to submit to His bridle and reins. Once we do, He is going to run us until we become better, more dynamic, than we ever dared dream or imagine. He is going to test us beyond the level of our own endurance. By doing so, he will reveal our true potential, a potential we never knew we had. It is a potential we can never achieve in our own strength. But if we are to realize it, we have to get ourselves into the game.

We talk a lot about a balanced life and the importance of having some “down” time to disconnect and take stock. I’m actually a big fan of proper pacing. There is nothing wrong with that concept. But if I am going to be honest with myself, too often, disengagement is just a discrete way of chickening out of the calling and risks ahead. Rest and relaxation will become sloth and slovenliness if we let them. A lifestyle of rest soon becomes a habit of laziness. God did not give us His Spirit so we could lay on the beach or spend all our time “kicking back.” God wants us to be bold, to dream and to achieve. He wants what we do to count, eternally. Laying on the couch doesn’t. As Jesus said to the crippled man at Bethesda, “Do you want to get well? Pick up your mat and walk!” Miracles do happen, but sometimes, we still have to take the first step.