Committing to a Life of Practice

“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.“ 1 John Galatians 6:9 ESV

Have you ever thought that you were pretty good at something, and then you did that thing in front of a group of people…and quickly realized that you weren’t as good at that thing as you thought you were? I know you can’t see it, but I’m raising both of my hands right now. 

When I first started snowboarding, I thought I was pretty good. I had picked up on the mechanics fairly quickly, and so I remember thinking to myself, “Ryan, you need to take things up a notch! You need to challenge yourself…or this will get boring.” So, after not much thought, I decided that competing would be a good next step. The only problem was, I thought I was much better at snowboarding than I actually was. And that was proven to be true during my first several competitions. They DID NOT go very well…at all! It was quite embarrassing actually. 

I remember one competition in particular that turned a switch in me. I had failed to land my runs (again), so I didn’t make finals…and I walked away feeling so dejected. And I remember telling myself, “okay, this is the LAST time this will happen.” And that set me on a course of pretty intense training. So, for the next two years, I started snowboarding almost every day (which was possible due to an artificial hill called Snowflex). But I didn’t just snowboard…I created a regiment for myself. I put together a list of tricks that I needed to do when I got to the mountain each day. And I had one rule…I needed to do all of those tricks regular AND switch before I was allowed to move onto anything else. 

Now, that may sound a little crazy. And you’re right. Looking back on it, I made snowboarding way too formulaic (and…egocentric). And that took a lot of the fun out of it. BUT…I did progress. After a few months, my style started to take shape and I started to land tricks that I never thought I would be able to do. And that really reinforced an important lesson that I had learned growing up; namely, that if you want to become good at something, then you need to practice it over and over again…until it becomes ingrained deep down in your bones. You need to be consistent. 

And, after a few years of concentrated thought on this, I think that same principle is true when it comes to our faith. I think a lot of us often feel stuck in our faith because we struggle to consistently practice and embody the things that would help us grow. I think most of us have good intentions. Like…we really want to grow in our faith. But we’re not entirely sure how to pursue that in a way that feels sustainable (with all the different things that life throws at us). And that’s understandable. I know I’ve been there. 

But if that’s the case, then I think we need to ask ourselves an important question: are we doomed to live in a perpetual cycle of “stuckness” – of stunted growth? 

Well…I don’t think we have to be.

While this might sound overly simplistic, I think we just need to shift our perspective a little bit. I’m becoming more and more convinced that the reason a lot of us struggle is because we tend to put unrealistic expectations on ourselves. We make things WAY too hard, and we don’t give ourselves a lot of grace. So, rather than leaning into the life-giving practices (like prayer, Bible reading, journaling, serving, fasting, etc.) that would help us grow, we end up giving up way too soon.

Again…I’ve been there.

I recently attended an SFC conference in Whitefish, MT that focused on the theme: following God in the everyday stuff of life. It was a great week full of incredible insights. But one of the biggest takeaways (for me) was that we often think about the spiritual practices/disciples – and how we practice them – too narrowly. We’re WAY too rigid…because we think so black and white (this is the right way, and this is the wrong way). And so no wonder we all struggle. There’s not a lot of life and freedom in that. 

And so, with that struggle in mind, one of our speakers invited us to think about things a little differently. Rather than trying to nail all of the disciplines perfectly…what if we got creative and committed ourselves to short experiments (in Bible reading, prayer, journaling, serving, community life, etc.)? By committing to short experiments (for just a couple of weeks), we have the freedom and ability to change things up if they don’t seem to work or make sense. At the end of the day, the goal is relationship. The spiritual practices/disciplines are meant to drive us into a deeper and more intimate relationship with God. They’re meant to awaken us to His presence…which helps to bring wholeness and confidence! So great creative with it and try something new. Invite others to join in on the process/experiment and talk it out (we all need others because it makes things real!). But keep trying. Don’t give up. At the end of the day, consistency is key.