Rule of Life (1) - Serious About Growth

SERIOUS ABOUT GROWTH

In his book "Christian Proficiency", Martin Thornton observes: "It is curious that the man who sticks to his job in illness, the sportsman who carries on in pain, the soldier who remains at his post in spite of wounds, are all subjects of admiration.

None are doing brilliantly well but they are showing courage and stamina; we admire them in their hardship cheerfully borne, in their sinking of self-interest for the common good.”

And he goes on: “Yet if we continue with our prayer when it is dull and arid, we are ‘insincere’. If we assist at worship when we are ill, tired and distracted, we are ‘irreverent’, and when a man under intense temptation struggles, falls, confesses; struggles, falls, confesses, over and over again without despair, then he is a ‘hypocrite’.”

He is so right, isn't he?

We do admire the worker, the sportsman and the soldier who stick at their work through thick and thin. Yet at the same time, we do not always show the same admiration towards the Christian who sticks at his life of discipleship through thick and thin.

The reason for this is that we do not always take the spiritual life seriously.

There is still a tendency to see the spiritual life as something of an optional extra. It is something we do provided nothing else gets in the way, be it sport, family commitments or sheer lethargy.

Dietrich Bonhoffer calls this 'cheap grace’. In other words, we expect all the benefits of being a member of the Christian church, without the cost involved. We want the new life Christ offers us without the crucifixion. We want the spiritual benefits, but we are not prepared to pay the price.

And the price is summed up in the one word 'discipline'.

The word 'discipline' comes from the same root as the word 'disciple'. A disciple is a person who is disciplined. The Greek word for ‘disciple’ means ‘learner’, and anyone who is serious about learning needs first to be disciplined.

The professional pianist does not become a concert pianist overnight. Rather it is the fruit of years and years of disciplined study and practice.

A professional football player does not become a star of the football pitch overnight. Rather it is the fruit of years and years of disciplined study and practice.

And neither does a professional writer produce a best-seller overnight. Rather it is also the fruit of years and years of disciplined study and practice.

There are no short cuts towards becoming proficient. It is always the result of years and years of discipline.

And the same is true for Christians and their spiritual life. There are no short cuts towards holiness. Holiness or wholeness is the fruit of a disciplined life.

Now this is not to say that discipline need always be a drudge. There are times when it can be invigorating, exciting and thoroughly enjoyable. At such times we become hardly aware of the discipline which underlines our activity. Our enthusiasm carries us along with its own momentum. Yet there are other times when only discipline can keep us going.

Discipline always precedes devotion and not the other way round,

In the same book, Martin Thornton likens Christian prayer to cleaning a car. He says: “When we are lucky enough to have a new one, we wash and polish away with enthusiastic fervour; it is a devotional job. When the novelty wears off it becomes rather a nuisance and rather a bore, but we can still clean it efficiently, and here is the one vital point: there is no difference whatever in the result", and he concludes: "It is exactly the same with prayer".

I would want to go on further and to say it is exactly the same with the whole of the spiritual life of which prayer is its basis. We have a job to do. That job is to become more Christ-like day by day, month by month, year by year. That job of learning to become more Christ-like, can only be achieved provided first we are disciplined disciples.

We are called to be professional Christians, not amateurs. Or, to put it another way, we are called to be Regular soldiers of Christ and not territorial soldiers. A Regular soldier is an efficient full time professional, as opposed to a keen 'territorial' who is a volunteer and only fights when he feels like it.

The word 'regular' comes from the Latin word 'regula' from which we get the word 'Rule'.

And so over these next four sermons, I shall be examining how a Rule of Life can enable those of you who are serious about your discipleship, to grow in the spiritual life.