Are you prepared? Are you preparing?
Jon Swanson tells a great story from John 1:35-51 about Jesus calling disciples. (Watch Jon’s short video)
It’s a story of overnight success. These unremarkable guys are hanging out, fishing or sitting under fig trees or whatever, and Jesus just shows up and invites them into the most exclusive, life-changing circle in history.
That’s how we see stories. The great results happen magically. They stem from luck or genetics or the right connections or God’s divine intervention. I don’t deny that those factors play some part, but we miss a key element. Most great results follow long periods of hard work and practice.
10,000 hours
In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell argues that anyone can become an expert at anything if they’re willing to invest 10,000 hours of intensive, sustained practice. That’s five years, eight hours per day, five days per week. It lends perspective to my thought for the week: Stop trying. Start training. (previous thoughts Training; Does Trying Matter?)
Jesus chose His disciples in their human context. Two of the men were already disciples of John the Baptist. They followed him, listened to his teaching. When he pointed at Jesus and said, “Look, the Lamb of God,” they understood the significance of this proclamation.
Later, Andrew tells his brother Simon, “We have found the Messiah.” Both men knew the importance of this term—they knew enough to drop everything and follow Jesus.
The disciples were prepared for Jesus’ invitation. They’d done the necessary training. They knew enough to accept the opportunity.
Then these twelve men spent the next three years with Jesus. Three years, nine hours per day, every day—that’s about 10,000 hours devoted to training for their role as apostles.
This helps me … how?
Here’s the point for you and me: Trying to follow Jesus doesn’t accomplish much. Trying to be a good disciple means trying to do the right things and making sure our efforts get noticed. Trying to make the result happen almost assures that it’ll never happen.
Training for discipleship is different. Training means actually following, listening, being open to instruction and correction. Training means preparation and sacrifice. There’s no easy shortcut in training.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 1 Corinthians 9:24-25
The prize goes to the few who commit to the “strict training.”
Seems like there’s a difference between:
- Trying to serve and training to serve.
- Trying to love and training to love.
- Trying to forgive and training to forgive.
- Trying to be courageous and training to be courageous.
- Trying to be a peacemaker and training to be a peacemaker.
I’ve been trapped in trying mode in a lot of important areas. I want to stop the trying and begin the training. You?
Can you see any part of your relationship with Jesus that might benefit from less trying and more training? What specifically needs to change?
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