"Live It, Don't Look It" (4/8/2024)

I’m reading this book, “The Spirit of The Disciplines” by Dallas Willard right now and loved one of the analogies he presents early on. What he discusses is the idea of a child looking up to a professional athlete. This child idolizes the athlete, wanting so badly to be like him, so he buys the same glove, the same cleats, he chooses the same walk up song when he’s at bat, he even does the same cool bat flip as he walks to the batter's box. He does everything he can to outwardly look like his favorite athlete, but is missing somethitng critical. What the child is missing is all of the things that make the professional so successful at the game. It’s physical training, daily practice, a healthy diet, reviewing game tapes to make adjustments, listening to coaching, good sleep, and a supportive team. The child can show up to the game and LOOK just like the professional, but when he stands up to bat, and strikes out, it’s because while he may have the outward appearance of his idol, he missed all of the things that actually made his idol who he is in the first place. 

There’s a controversial series of verses in the bible (I know, surprising right), they’re James 2:14 through James 2:26. I won’t quote the entire thing here but it starts with this, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him?” and then a few verses later it says, “But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works”. 

Why does this raise controversy in the church? For those reading this who are unfamiliar with how “Christianity” works, it’s not about religion, or following the rules, or not swearing, or not drinking, or being nice, or avoiding R rated movies, or any of those things. All it takes is to believe and accept that Jesus was God in the flesh, he lived a perfect life, died on the cross, and rose again, and as a result of that recognition, and the acceptance of him as your savior, you have gained salvation. The bible tells us that there is nothing we can do to earn salvation, the deed was done, and all we have to do is believe and accept. 

With that said, there is still the chicken or the egg question of what comes first, works or faith? God wants you as you are, there is no need to change yourself, improve yourself, be nicer, be more knowledgeable in the bible, none of it. He wants your faith. The way I’ve learned to view the relationship of salvation and works is this: works are not a necessary cause for salvation, they’re evidence of it. You are not a believer because of the work, you do, you do the work because you are a believer. 

The aim of the Christian life is to be transformed into the image of Christ for the sake of others. To be like Christ, you can’t just say you’re like Christ, or just go to church once a week, it’s about the things you do internally, when nobody else is looking, asking God to change you, so that your outward appearance to the world isn’t just shiny new cleats and a cool bat flip, but instead it’s stepping into the batter’s box when you’re down by 2 and the bases are loaded, and your training has set you up for this moment, not just to look good, but to be good, and you close the bottom of the 9th with a walk off home run, because you trained for that moment, and were prepared when it happened. 

In regards to The Suffer Club and the tie to fitness, you might be able to see it here, but it’s really simple. There is nothing inherently wrong with buying the Vuori clothes, taking selfies in a mirror at the gym (well this one is kind of wrong…) and doing endless sets of bicep curls, but at the end of the day, that is not living it out. It’s about having the grit to train on the days you’re tired and sore, it’s about choosing (within reason) to eat in a way that nourishes your body and supports your training, it’s about putting your phone away at night and turning the TV off a little bit earlier so you can get the rest you need to recover, and it’s about pushing yourself beyond your limits to actually get better, not just look better. When we live better, consequently, we will look better.

It’s really easy in both faith and fitness to look it, it’s much harder to actually live it. We do the work, not because God requires it, but because he doesn’t. 

James 2:26

“For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead.”