Practice

What do you think of when you hear the word "practice"?
Practice Makes Perfect?
Practice What You Preach?

Saturday morning at 8:30, this was the scene at our household: Dennis was getting to sleep in for the first time in a long time. Abby was watching cartoons. I was sorting laundry. Ben was in the front room practicing his cello for All-Region. I heard him practicing the same thing over and over again, and it sounded great. So, I told him to move on to something harder.

8:45 Ben is in tears practicing his cello, saying, "I just can't play this." Abby was in the front room playing his piece on the piano (showing him up) and I was ripping my hair out because they were both fighting because she was distracting him. At that moment he hated the cello, All-Region, and especially his sister! So much for a peaceful Saturday morning!

8:50 I got Abby settled back down watching cartoons, and sat down with Ben to work with him on his music. First, I told him he needed to set attainable goals for that practice time. Playing something once through and expecting perfection is not an attainable goal. I also explained to him that music is never going to be perfect --it's an extension of us. We will never play something the same way twice. So, rather than set a goal of perfection, I encouraged him to set a broad goal of excellence, but also map out the daily goals necessary to achieve that excellence in his music. So, we decided to focus on an A major scale. After several minutes of breaking things down and working on one thing at a time, he started making major improvements, the tears stopped flowing, and once again, we were enjoying our Saturday morning.

I started thinking about his practice time, and I thought, "We are that way with God. We want to work on the things that are easy for us, and don't want to tackle the hard things". We tend to define the "hard" things as those things that we can't immediately perfect--things that don't come naturally to us. These things become discouraging to us, if we let them, and we often abandon them.

It's kind of like being on a diet. If you select a diet that is radical and unsustainable, you'll lose a lot of weight short term, and gain it all back and more in the long haul. Then, you're usually more discouraged than before you started the initial diet because you've tried and failed. I think we tend to be that way in our Christian walks. We burn brightly, often out of our own strength, and fail to plug into God's power and keep our eyes fixed on His guidance and direction. Soon, our strength gives out, we realize that we are farther from God than when we started, and we get discouraged. Many people fall away simply because of this pattern of behavior.

Here's the cool part, though--God doesn't expect us to be perfect. And especially not the first time! He's given us a whole life to walk that journey, and has made it clear that perfection is not something attainable this side of Heaven. The only one who ever walked this earth and was perfect was Jesus. Whew! Now, that doesn't give us license to be intentionally disobedient...let's face it...sin is sin. But, what Scripture does tell us is that He wants us to keep walking, keep trying, and continue to be refined. He wants us to set goals, keep our eyes fixed on Him and put our full weight behind attaining those goals.

In Hebrews Chapter 11, the author paints for us a beautiful picture of the faith of all of saints that have walked before us -- real, live, flesh and blood people. He opens Chapter 12 with this statement:
Therefore since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and run with endurance the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross and despised the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of God's throne.

We cannot attain perfection. But the One who sits at the right hand of God did attain it. All we have to do is set our eyes on Him-- Jesus, the One and Only-- and keep putting one foot in front of the other until the day that our story joins those of the saints that have gone before. So, practice...daily, joyfully and with all of your heart!

Lord, thank You for sending Your Son to model life for us. Thank You for sending Your Word to act as an encouragement as well as an instruction book for our lives. Thank You for living in communion with us daily, that we might turn to You for direction on this grand journey. Help us to continue to daily put into practice the things that will draw us and others nearer to You.