There is one final fundamental key to laying down the air-hockey and following Jesus out the door to his larger-than-life-sized plan: focus on training harder rather than trying harder. Dallas Willard writes, “As disciples, we are not trying to be different people (which is the road to failure, legalism, and bondage), but we are training to be different people.” You will not become victorious over vice by just trying harder. You will not subdue sin merely through brute force. As you peer up the slopes of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, do not think “If I just push myself really hard I’ll make it to the top.”
Effort is required, as we learned earlier. But no significant spiritual growth takes place through effort alone. The effort must be expended in the right way. What’s called for is not trying harder, but training harder. John Ortberg succinctly states, “Respecting the distinction between training and merely trying is the key to transformation in every aspect of life.”
Most of us have accepted this truth in the realm of physical fitness. I have a group of friends who regularly run the half-marathon or full marathon in Memphis which serves as a fund raiser for Saint Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Many of these friends have run the race multiple times. And each year they enter into a familiar rhythm. Months prior to the event they begin training. While they may have been actively running throughout the year, in order to prepare for the Saint Jude half or full marathon, they know they must do something different. They must train.
Slowly, methodically, over a period of months, they run longer distances and log greater numbers of miles. At training’s beginning, their “long run” may be only eight miles. Two weeks later it’s ten miles. Not long after that the “long run” progresses to twelve miles. Through the training, they are able to gradually build up their endurance, strength, and capacity for discomfort. When race-day arrives, they are again able to do what they could not do just a few months earlier—run 13.1 or 26.2 miles.
Once in a while, a friend will try to by-pass training. A few years ago after the half-marathon, I exited the baseball stadium where the race finishes and began walking to my car. I saw one of my running-friends sitting on some steps near the stadium’s entrance. She was pale, sweaty, and breathing hard. “What’s wrong?” I asked. The race had completed over an hour ago. Her body should have recovered by now. She confessed, “I didn’t make time to train this year. I only had a handful of long runs and figured I could just push myself to the finish line this year. Boy, was that a mistake!” She didn’t train hard in the months prior to the race and instead just tried hard on the day of the race. It left her body such a wreck she vowed never to do that again.
In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is showing us the entire race. It’s not a 5K. It’s a marathon. Complete the 26.2 race and this is what your life will look like. But this race is not something we can complete in our present state of spiritual fitness. We must humbly accept that none of us possesses the spiritual muscle and stamina to successfully cross that finish line. Instead, we must enter into training. We must discover ways to slowly, methodically, and intentionally build up our spiritual muscles over time.
This is precisely the purpose of the spiritual disciplines. Engage in them and eventually, through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, you will become capable of doing what you may have never been able to do before. You will find yourself living into this amazing vision Jesus has for your life.
Paul points to this progressive growth when he urges the Philippians to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure” (Phi. 2:12-13 ESV). We do not work for our salvation. But we do work out our salvation, partnering with the God who gives us both the desire (will) and ability (work) to live “for his good pleasure.” Spiritual training is how we work out the saving work of God within us.
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