Just finished reading Dallas Willard’s The Great Omission a week or so back, and he poses an idea that I suspect is true but is worth pondering over:

Actions - as opposed to experiences - are what take us through the process of sanctification. We shouldn’t be surprised if someone sits through 20 years of sermons but does not change if that’s all they do. Sitting through something like that doesn’t change you. It wasn’t designed to. Huh?

Legalism is like a child going into a candy store with his mother, who then says he can choose one candy from among a limit of five specified different selections. There are definite boundaries. Freedom is like a child walking along by himself and discovering a $20 bill on the sidewalk outside the candy store. What’s he going to do? Try and find the owner who has lost the money? Go into the candy store and go hog wild?

Legalism can be quite comforting with its’ preset limits and defined boundaries. You don’t need to exercise much self-discipline. You don’t need to be very responsible; someone else is being partly responsible for you.

In 1 Cor 9:27, Paul writes that he “will discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”

What does he mean by “discipline” here?

Yesterday, when I went to the pool for my lunchtime workout, the last thing I felt like doing was swimming. I’d much rather just have gone to lunch. After all, missing one day can’t possibly make much of a difference, can it? I swam anyway. And, as always, I felt really good after the workout. I also astonished myself by doing 1700 yards - the furthest I’ve been since my shoulder surgery.

The interesting thing is that I often seem to have no desire to jump in the pool for a workout. But every time, without exception, I make myself get in. And every time, without exception, I feel good after it. More importantly, it’s the consistency that make me a little bit stronger every day. And over time, I become a powerful swimmer.

A lot of Christians are on a quixotic search for the magic silver bullet that instantly bestows Luther-like maturity. Not gonna’ happen.

Today was yet another milestone in my recovery from shoulder surgery 4 months ago. I swam 1500 yards with both arms in a single workout. Man, it felt great! It’s taken a lot of consistent hard work to get this far. But there’s a lot of hard work left to go.

Experts now tell us that “gentle exercise” doesn’t cut it. You need a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate exercise five days a week, or 20 minutes of vigorous exercise, like jogging, three days a week. You need to break a sweat. Bad news for all you golfers and bowlers who thought you were getting your dose of required exercise. That gentle evening stroll isn’t sufficient. Same thing goes for our spiritual lives.