Last Sunday, we began \u201cThe Strong Challenge\u201d which is an all city, multi-church journey encouraging all of us to get strong by practicing certain spiritual habits.<\/p>\n
I have to confess that having a weakling like me do a series called Strong has a certain poetic irony. I\u2019m an athlete, I play sand volleyball and water\/snow ski, but I have never been a fan of the weight room. I remember in high school track, we were told to go into the weight room for at least 30 minutes a day to get strong. I\u2019d go into this room filled with mostly football players. They\u2019d be bench pressing hundreds of pounds. \u00a0I\u2019d sit down on the bench and barely be able to bench press the bar. \u00a0I remember one day trying to push this stupid bar off my chest and back up into the rack when I noticed my coaches in the corner watching me and laughing…as well as a few high school girls walking by snickering.\u00a0\u00a0I was humiliated. \u00a0It\u2019s bad enough to not be strong, but to be humiliated \u201cbecoming strong\u201d just wasn\u2019t worth it. \u00a0As a guy, I don\u2019t want to be put in a place to look foolish. \u00a0So, honestly, I haven\u2019t been in a weight room hardly ever since then. \u00a0\u00a0In fact, when I was in 5th grade, I didn\u2019t like Ronald Reagan. \u00a0I didn\u2019t know anything about politics. I just knew that once a year, in gym class, I was required to \u201cattempt\u201d a chin up -in front of my entire class- thanks to the Ronald Reagan Fitness Program. \u00a0\u00a0I was always humiliated that I could barely do one pull up. My weakness didn\u2019t drive me to become stronger, it drove me to avoid situations where I felt foolish.<\/span><\/p>\n When it comes to spiritual habits, strength, and disciplines, I think many of us -especially guys- are the same. \u00a0If we don\u2019t know much about the Bible, we don\u2019t want to be in an environment where we are made to look foolish. We may not pray out loud because we are not \u201cgood at it.\u201d \u00a0I want you to know that our STRONG challenge will not make anyone look foolish. It will challenge us to grow, but in a way that makes it easy to develop skills. These skills or habits are called spiritual disciplines. We\u2019ll look at 6 of them: PLAY STRONG, STRONG COMMUNICATION, STRONG LEARNING, STRONG TRAINING, STRONG SERVICE, and STRONG LIVING.<\/p>\n Why would any of us want to spend the time, or waste the time doing this? \u00a0If you are married, you know that it takes supernatural strength and staying power to keep committed when you go through a dry spell in your marriage. \u00a0If you are single, you know how hard it is to keep your standards and dream of the spouse you want, you need strength. Even if you casually walk through life, you know that life will kick you in the teeth and pound you to the ground…we all need strength and inner fortitude to sustain life\u2019s constant blows. \u00a0If you have ever tried to forgive someone who has wronged you deeply, you know it takes a supernatural strength to let go and not become bitter. If you are a worrier, you know that the power of worry seems to wrestle you to the ground, you need a strength to free you from the stress, the addiction to worry, and ulcers you are creating. Bottom line…we all need Strength Training.<\/p>\n EVERYONE CAN BECOME STRONG BY INTEGRATING TWO PHRASES INTO YOUR LIFE:<\/p>\n 1) DOING WHAT I SHOULD DO FREES ME TO DO WHAT I COULD DO; AND<\/p>\n 2) DEDICATION LEADS TO CELEBRATION. 1. \u00a0DOING WHAT I SHOULD DO FREES ME TO DO WHAT I COULD DO.<\/strong><\/p>\n When I think of a discipline, I intuitively define it as: \u00a0Discipline is doing what I should<\/span> do instead <\/strong>of what I WOULD<\/span> do otherwise.<\/em><\/p>\n I know what I \u201cshould\u201d do. \u00a0I \u201cshould\u201d eat better, run more, take better care of my health. I know I \u201cought\u201d to have some faith practices (go to church, pray, read the Bible, etc). \u00a0I know I \u201cought\u201d to get up earlier and go to bed earlier to get more rest and be ready to go in the morning, but these \u201cdisciplines\u201d of what I ought <\/em>to do seem to be the polar opposite of what I want<\/em> to do. \u00a0I want to eat more ice cream. I want to watch one more TV show at night. I want to hit the snooze button. I want to NOT go running. I want to eat more steak, not salad. I want to \u201ccheck in\u201d and “check out” spiritually after Sunday. \u00a0So, one of the main reasons I avoid spiritual disciplines is that I define them they way they feel, they are the opposite of what I want to do.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s the thing about Disciplines: They Can Become Obsessions<\/strong>. We have many people in our church who love to train, run marathons, even the iron-mans. \u00a0They become obsessions for many. I talked to one guy who ran another marathon recently and asked where he got his love for running, his obsession for this sport.\u00a0 He told me that it began as a \u201cSHOULD DO\u201d rather than a \u201cWANT TO.\u201d\u00a0He was on a board for a cancer group and felt like he ought to be part of raising money with a 5K. \u00a0He always thought it would be neat if he COULD run a marathon. \u00a0But, he needed some SHOULDS to enable him to his COULDS. He started training as a discipline to…and he came to like it. It became a WANT to.<\/p>\n Many of us can play an instrument like a guitar, piano, clarinet, or drums. \u00a0\u00a0Before it was a \u201cwant to\u201d though, it was years of mom, dad, a teacher, a coach, or a mentor making it an \u201cought to.\u201d The same is true in dieting, working out, and even something like Bible study or prayer. Constantly we hear stories of busy people who are invited to start a Bible study on a Thursday morning or 1-on-1 with an older professional, and what reluctantly began as an \u201cought to\u201d became a \u201cwant to\u201d in their calendar.<\/p>\n 2.\u00a0 DOING WHAT I SHOULD DO FREES ME<\/span> TO DO WHAT I COULD DO. <\/strong><\/p>\n You may think, Christianity is a whole list of doing things I \u201cought to do.\u201d \u00a0It\u2019s a list of obligations. It\u2019s a bunch of joy-sucking, fun-killing, no-no lists. \u00a0It\u2019s the opiate of the masses. It\u2019s the way to control people and keep them from being free. Is that true? \u00a0God says that the practices that He offers don\u2019t make you less free, but more free. \u00a0The opposite — I know many people who tried \u201cdoing whatever they want\u201d and they ended up less free, enslaved to an addiction, ulcers, workaholism, etc. \u00a0They lost their marriage, they lost their health, they lost their integrity… all practicing doing whatever they wanted. Then, they had a \u201cah-ha\u201d moment. \u00a0They began to realize that God\u2019s \u201cought to do\u2019s\u201d freed them…so instead of doing what they ought to do, they had something happen that made them rethink their habits.<\/p>\n It may be cancer, a heart attack, or other health crisis.\u00a0 Suddenly we\u2019re interested in both physical disciplines (how we eat, work out) as well as spiritual disciplines (What happens when we die? What\u2019s the real meaning of life? What kind of a legacy have I left?). \u00a0Most folks I know who start going to church begins with a crisis. \u00a0Their marriage is in trouble, they have a teenager in rebellion, or an addiction that got out of control. \u00a0There is fear that life is out of control or heading into a ditch. Fear that \u201cWhat got us here, won\u2019t get us there.\u201d \u00a0We say to ourselves, \u201cI have to try something different, I\u2019ve tried doing what I want. Perhaps I\u2019ll try doing what God wants.\u201d<\/p>\n For a free first session of Godonomics, visit: http:\/\/www.godonomics.com\/watch-session-1<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n