Day 105: Spiritual Discipline

"But reject profane and old wives' fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness.  For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come."  1 Timothy 4:7-8

Here's an excellent metaphor for spirituality.

The two verses seem to make up two important components for spiritual discipline: self-control and practice.  If we take a step backwards to follow the physical metaphor, these two components are diet and exercise.

Dieting is a very interesting field.  I must say that in our modern times, a healthy diet is quite hard to come by.  On the one hand, everything that is being advertised is quite unhealthy, from soda and fast food ads on TV to having all of the processed snacks in eyesight at the supermarkets.  On the other hand, many diets that claim to have health benefits have absolutely no scientific backing or approval.  In fact, even studies in support of fad diets tend to be debunked and/or retracted.  Therefore, dieting consists of resisting the temptations of advertisements and the temptations of fast results.  The only solution is to go to your personal doctor and/or nutritionist to find out what is best for you.  In the same way, spiritual self-control involves quite a bit of resisting of temptations - both of things that will only harm our minds, bodies, and souls and of doctrines that claim to be able to be a quick fix to our problems.  Yet, we have our authority more easily and readily available to us than a doctor (with the long waits and exorbitant costs).  God is just a prayer away, and the word is only a book a way (or even an app!).  We have all that we need, but we need to put these things into practice.

Exercise is quite straightforward.  Do this, and that will happen.  Do cardio, and you will lose weight.  Practice strength training, and you will get stronger.  The best thing about exercise is that you can see the results.  Looking at your physical appearance, you can see when you lose some weight or gain some muscle.  When you are performing everyday tasks (such as walking up stairs or even walking around for certain periods of time) or even when meeting with a personal trainer, it becomes very clear whether you have been doing your exercise or not.  There is no lying.  The same goes for our spirituality.  If we don't put it to practice, it will be quite obvious.  If all we are doing is asking questions and not researching or praying or reading, then we will be left with the blubber of ignorance.  If we don't put the teachings of Christ into practice, we will forget them.  Words are nice, but if they take no root, they are merely noise or scribbles.

Just as a nutritionist or a doctor wants us to get healthier, the same goes for Jesus.  Jesus wants to see us become the best that we can be.  Through his teachings, Jesus shows us how to get into shape.  Until we put them to practice, they will mean nothing to us.

Day 081: Building Faith

Then Jesus said to them, "A little while longer the light is with you.  Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going." John 12:35

This is a poignant message from Jesus, especially as he prepares to go to the cross.

I just learned that it is a description of how our lives are so short that we only have a little while to walk in the light so that we may head in the right direction.  And, when I think about the short time that we have, I also think about how we can even learn to make our lives ones of light.

I love to study languages.  The hardest part about learning a language, in my opinion, is building up vocabulary.  There are usually so many words to learn.  Sure, there are few that you need to get by, but after getting a "survival level" in your target language, you have to start fleshing it out until you can achieve "fluency", whatever that goal might be for you.  The issue with learning vocabulary is that it is so easy to forget it.  I can learn a word now and forget it in thirty seconds.  I could learn a phrase today and forget it tomorrow.  So, I have had to figure out ways to master my mind in order to learn vocabulary.

Another image that comes to mind is working out.  From a visual standpoint, it is usually pretty obvious who spends time exercising and dieting and who doesn't.  From a personal standpoint, though, you can't lie to yourself.  When you go run for a day, you might only be able to go so far for so long.  However, after training for weeks or even months, you can build up an endurance to run quite a distance.  When you build up that endurance, you will find smaller physical tasks to be much easier.  But, when you lay off of exercise for a period of time, you realize that you have to start the training all over.  Your endurance wanes, and/or your muscles shrink.

In the same ways, I like to think about walking in the light.  We have let the world of darkness take over so many facets of our lives that we need to put in an effort just to walk towards the light, let alone in it.  We need to surround ourselves with the resources we need in order to get to the light.  And, just as Jesus was showing us in this example, the Gospel is the easiest way to the light.  We have all this guidance from Jesus to walk in the right direction.  Pair that up with some prayer and you should be set for life.

In the end, whatever the method, we have to remember that it is not instantaneous.  We need to develop our lives in faith, and we need to build up our faith like a strong vocabulary or a set of muscles.  During Holy Week, take the opportunities that are out there to build up on your faith.  Attend a few services.  Read a few devotionals.  Pray.