the transformation cycle, part 2

Training

1 Timothy 4:7-8 says, “Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales; rather, train yourself to be godly.  For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”  Notice the direction Paul gives to his young protégé, Timothy.  Train yourself for godliness.  He doesn’t say, “Try to be godly.”

There is a huge difference between training and trying.  John Ortberg points this out in his fabulous resource on spiritual disciplines, The Life You’ve Always Wanted.  He talks about the difference between going out and trying to run a marathon versus the idea of training to run one.  If you are serious about running a marathon, you will have to dedicate yourself to a life of training.  Training isn’t the marathon, but it prepares and equips you to be able to run on race day.

In the same way, Christ-followers will need to enter into a life of training to become godly.  The training itself isn’t godliness; it is what you to do put yourself in a place to become godly.

I have been around the church a long time, my whole life to be exact.  And I have noticed that church people have a tendency to substitute training for the actual game.  They read their Bibles, spend time in regular prayer, and attend church faithfully.  The really serious ones give 10% of their income and even fast occasionally.  These activities are noble and worthy pursuits when they are focused on the right end.  The problem comes when you think that because you do these things, you are godly.  Godliness has more to do with how much of the Bible you are living out in daily life, then it does with how much of the Bible you read today.  It has more to do with how in tune you are with God’s voice and direction, then it does with how long you prayed this morning.  Being godly is not so much about attending church as it is truly worshiping God while you are there.  And, of course, none of these things matter if they are not moving us toward the ultimate goal of loving God and loving others more and more each day.

So what does it mean for us to train for godliness and how do we go about doing that?  Training for godliness consists of the activities and practices we engage in to put ourselves in a place where God’s Spirit can interact with our lives and help us grow.  It is like sailing.  I am not a sailor, but I know enough to understand that you need two major ingredients to make sailing work: a hoisted sail and a blowing wind. 

The sailor is responsible to hoist the sail.  And it doesn’t matter how hard the wind is blowing, if the sail is not hoisted, the boat moves very little.  This correlates to the spiritual journey, in that, the wind of God’s Spirit could be blowing all around us.  But if we are not hoisting the sails of our lives we will not move forward.  We hoist the sails in our lives by engaging in training activities that put us in a place to interact with the wind of God’s Spirit.  

These training activities have historically been known as the disciplines of the faith and include things such as Scripture, prayer, meditation, silence, solitude, fasting, confession, and worship.  (Check out the following resources for more information on spiritual disciplines: The Life You’ve Always Wanted, Celebration of Discipline, The Spirit of the Disciplines, and Running on Empty).  

When you faithfully engage in these training activities you are putting yourself in a place where you are most likely to connect with God.  It is in those places that the wind of God’s Spirit can blow through your life bringing change and growth.

In the next post in this series we will consider how growth actually happens in our lives.  Until then, stop trying to be godly and enter into a life of training!