World Class

With the Winter Olympics ended and the Paralympics about to get underway, I was thinking: not one athlete, no matter where they placed, was a couch-potato. Each one practiced, trained and studied to achieve the level of play that brought them to the pinnacle of their game.

World class athletes are not the only ones who train to get to the top of their profession. Nearly everyone we can think of, who’s at the top of their profession or at least a contender—trained. They trained very hard and the results are visible. They may have placed last in a speed skating heat, but they were there ahead of thousands of other athletes who didn’t make it.

Even a couch potato has to spend a lot of time on a couch, in front of a TV, to be called a couch potato. And although there maybe lots of couch potatoes, only a few have made it as world class couch potatoes. I’m only supposing, I can’t find the statistics to support my couch potato theory.

So, if we expect people to put of effort into be considered really great, why do we expect so little of ourselves on our journey of faith?

Developing a spiritual discipline is a good thing. Abiding by the Ten Commandments is a good thing. Prayer is a good thing. Loving God and one another is a good thing. Training and practice benefit the Christian on his or her journey as much as it does the Olympic athletes.

We know that, it is only by God’s grace that we are saved, and the Apostle Paul knew this when he admitted that he does the things he doesn’t want to do, and doesn’t do the things he knows he should. Paul was not talking about things like riding his camel too fast in a School Zone. He meant things like the 10 Commandments, which Paul followed and in which he believed he was blameless. He came to understand that all that really mattered was a relationship with Jesus Christ. Now let’s be clear—I’m sure Paul would advise anyone to follow the commandments (because they are good and purposeful). However, if adherence to the rules in some way inhibits love of God or one another then love ought to trump the rules.

The Olympic athlete trains his/her body so that the unusual movements of the sport become second nature. The body responds quickly and without the slowness of the brain to send instructions: what was unnatural becomes natural, or first nature.

Following the commandments, prayer and worship, are the training tools for making God’s love and forgiveness, God’s mercy and justice, our first nature. Our goal is to be world class practitioners of the faith.

Coaching helps. Many say that the success of other nation’s Olympic curlers is due in no small way to their Canadian coaches. That may be true, I don’t know. The fact that people are saying so is because we all recognize the important role of coaches and mentors in our training. That is why the community is so important to Christians—we can help develop the skills we need to be world class practitioners of the faith.