Life Journal Olympians

As I stay up late each night to watch the Olympics, I am amazed at the courage and dedication it takes to be an Olympian. They had to make a choice to arrange their lives around certain practices that will one day make it possible to compete at that level of athleticism.

Bolt and Phelps did not just wake up one morning and randomly say to themselves: "Next week, I am going to break world records and win lots of gold medals." If I made that sort of statement around my house, my kids would roll in the floor laughing. They know what I know: I have not trained. I have not disciplined myself to win any sort of race...unless I'm racing Jake (my 4 year old) pretty much anywhere.

Bolt and Phelps (and all the Olympians) decided years ago that they were going to set their hearts and minds on the goal of winning gold. Then they arranged their whole lives around that goal. It took consistent training to get their bodies into the kind of conditioning it takes to be an Olympian. Because of the training, they can now do what they once could not...win!

The same is true for disciples of Jesus. You and I can't just wake up one morning and exclaim that we are going to be more: patient, generous, kind, forgiving, thoughtful, joyful, faithful or loving.

First, our hearts and minds need to be captivated by the value of being a person of: patience, generosity, kindness, forgiveness, thoughtfulness, joyfulness, faithfulness and love.

Then we have to begin training. We need to sit under mentors and coaches like: David, Paul, Barnabas, Peter, Moses, Elijah, Abraham, Noah. We need to walk in the dust of our Rabbi: Jesus. And one way we do this is by orienting our lives around certain practices that will enable us to be the kind of person God has created us to be.

I am inviting each of you to join together as a community and push our way to adding this new habit of doing daily devotions using your Life Journal. All along the way there will be successes and failures. Richness and Dryness. Depth and Nothing. Encouragement and Despair. But it is a journey and on a journey, the scenery changes and I can think of nothing more inspiring to give my life to than to do THIS with YOU.

Chris