Training for Godliness Paul Hammons

In the first lesson of the series, we talk about some basic characteristics that are common to most progressive Christian teachers, and what their implications are for our understanding of God and of the Bible itself.

Be the hero of your own story. That’s kind of how we’re encouraged to look at life today. The idea that if you believe in something strongly enough, if you’re willing to put yourself out there and take risks, you can make things happen in your life - whether it’s in the business world, your relationships, your own sense of well-being. You can achieve your goals, and people are going to see it and acknowledge your success.
The Bible is filled with stories like that - or at least stories that seem to fit that description, and the one that seems to stand out the most is the story of David and Goliath. But I think it’s easy sometimes to miss the message, particularly in a culture where we tend to make everything about “us.”
When we see this story referenced today, particularly in more secular contexts, it tends to focus on self-confidence and trust, not being intimidated just because the obstacle looks imposing. It focuses on the idea of a long-shot winning against the odds. We use this story to explain why tiny colleges often send undermanned teams into a game and upset clearly superior teams with better resources and athletic skill. 
Except there’s more to that story, as any Bible school student will tell you. Because in reality, David isn’t the true hero of this story!

This year, one of the most popular topics of discussion concerns the quality of our political discourse - or the lack thereof. As our election approaches, we watch debates where shouting, name-calling, and interruption take the place of intelligent discussion of policy - or in most cases, we brag about how we DIDN’T watch it. If you’re on social media, it’s almost impossible to escape the bitterness and frustration so many are expressing toward both sides of the political aisle.
And despite whether you were “rooting” for one side or the other, even if you believe that one party is behaving itself in a more seemly manner than the other, most of us seem to come to the same conclusion:
We deserve better.
But it’s worth asking the question: do we really deserve better? If we’re really being honest about ourselves, about our culture, and about how it got this way, the reality is that we’re getting exactly what we deserve. Because when we look to human leadership, seeking deliverance from our troubles from some other person or political group or human ideology or concocted utopian fantasy, this is what we get: flawed leaders pandering to flawed people to give those people what (they believe) they want. 
But what people want - what they believe they deserve - is rarely what they need.

We’ve talked a lot about motivation this year, and clearly that’s one of the greatest challenges to living a life that demands excellence, but doesn’t always provide us with regular progress reports on how we’re doing. One of the biggest issues we often have – just like with physical training is that unless we have a clear-cut goal in front of us with measurable progress points, we may find ourselves wondering if what we’re doing matters at all. Is the work I’m putting in worth it? Am I really better off now than I was when I started?

We understand in physical applications that how other people are training has no impact on my outcome, but we often miss that point in spiritual applications. When people around us aren't living up to the standard, acting hypocritically, worshiping superficially, it sometimes makes us doubt our own level of effort - maybe even provoke us to leave the faith altogether! 

Our responsibilities to grow and serve God don't change based on what anyone else does. Discouragement can catch up to us when we take our eyes off Jesus and start worrying about whether anyone else is doing what they need to do.

No one likes the "workout" guy. The one always decked out in gym clothes, talking about his training, his diet, his routine, and always willing to point out ways that you could get into better shape, too! We know we need to do better, and we sometimes don't like being around the constant reminder of our shortcomings.

But do we let that attitude seep into our lives as disciples? After all, no one likes the person who wears his religion on his sleeve, and Jesus said not to do our works to be seen by men. And we're raised in a culture that tells us religion is best when kept to yourself.

Our challenge is that God calls us to be fanatical in our devotion, in our pursuit of virtue and righteousness, in our desire to do good works in this life. Do we feel compelled to tone that down for the world? Or do we drive ourselves to be that person who lives and breathes the gospel of Christ?

Do you ever have days when you just don't feel like putting in the work? You know that whatever work you put into your training that day is going to be half-hearted and probably not as effective as you'd like. Do you go through the motions? Or do you take a step back or take the day off?

This can be a tricky question in our spiritual lives, because when we try to act in a Christ-like way, but we don't feel Christ-like while doing it, it can feel like we're faking it. And in an age where "being real" is valued and holding back is considered fake, or not being true to yourself, is it ever OK to "fake" our service to God, doing works even when our heart isn't in it??
We have to start from the understanding that doing things God's way, with the right attitude and heart, is never going to be our default setting. As we've pointed out many times on this podcast, Paul described his life as "buffeting his body daily and bringing it under subjection." Paul didn't take the attitude that if things were hard, he needed to take a step back and do a self-care day. or to re-evaluate whether the difficulty was pointing him toward a truer version of himself that he ought to embrace rather than deny. Instead, he fought harder.
So sometimes, we do the work even when we don't feel like it. We treat people kindly when we'd rather be arguing or insulting them. We change our behavior to accommodate the needs of others, even when they don't deserve our consideration. We worship, pray, and study our Bible even when our minds seem rooted in physical things and won't let us wholly focus on God.
It's the practice of "taking every thought captive to obey Christ," as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 10:5. It is the very essence of training for godliness.