Christian Practice Room part 2

I'm going to stretch my wrestling analogy to tortured lengths, so bear with me. Please note that:
a) I am a Christian writing for other Christians. Christians who believe doing the will of God is important.
b) I'm not making the distinction between "our doing good things" and "God working through us" in this post. I'm not always sure what the difference is, and it's tiresome to write down both. When I talk about a Christian doing God-pleasing things, assume that they are doing it through the guidance and power of God.
c) Finally, I am struggling with the stuff I am writing, trying to work through it. My words are not pure truth, they are one man's perspective. Please remember that.

If the Christian life is a race, a struggle, a war (all Biblical metaphors) than too many of us are sitting on the sidelines. In a world that is filled with starvation, gluttony, lust, violence, hatred and has the capacity to turn itself into a smoking crater, we need a force for good. The Bible presents us with one- the Church. The followers of Christ. Following the greatest Good, with the back up of the greatest Power, and a handy instruction manual (yes, the Bible, don't you hate that cliche?) we are those equipped to deal with the evil (yes, evil, there is no other fitting word) that encompasses our world. However, the popular perception of Christians among non Christians seems to be one of two: either in propoganda-spewing, thoroughly hypocitical Republicans or naive, pathetic shut-ins that don't seem to do anything except sing and pray. This is not good.

I have a lot of bitterness toward the Religious Right, but this post is not about them. It seems to me, though, that a lot of us gravitate towards the second stereotype. Filled with the (worthy and noble) desire to BE good, we barely have the time and energy to DO good.

In wrestling, we have guys- either old retired guys or young beginners, usually- which are willing to practice, to train, to improve, but not to compete. They are- especially the old guys- often quite good, but are unable or unwilling to demonstrate how good.

Too often, we are practice room Christians, spending all the time training ourselves with our Bible-intepreting skills, our worship singing techniques, our lust-controlling marathons, and we forget to step onto the "big mat". Our Biblical knowledge of the verses commanding us to love, help and take care of our neighbour may be tremendous (mine is not, hence the lack of actual verses), but if we don't practice our skills what good are we doing?

World and Olympic champ Dan Gable was famous for his practice room skills as a coach after he retired from competition, thrashing Olympic medallists regularly in practice. He beat a young russian by 20 points in an exhibition match, who then went on to win several gold medals. Being "better" only matters if you can prove it in competiton- Dan will never get the Russian's medals. . Being "better" people, in my mind, is much more significant if we prove it with our actions. You no longer feel lust watching shampoo commercials? Great. Now use that self-control to do the world some good.

"Wait, wait, wait Jens.. Are you suggesting that becoming moral and knowledgeble people is unimportant?"

Hell no. It is of vital importance. Without "training" to BE good, how can we expect to DO good? The havoc wrought by unethical Christians- or Christians subceptible to temptation- is mind boggling.

I remember wrestling a multiple (Juvie and Jr) national medallist a couple years ago... he killed me first round, and then he gassed.. hard. with every ragged gasp from his mouth, I realized that I still had more energy then he. I ran him out of bounds repeatedly with minimal resistance (1 pt each) and eventually won in overtime, lifting him high into the air before slamming him down. (1-7, 3-0, 1-0 OT). He hadn't put in the time to train.

Afterwards, after he had put in his cardio training, I wrestled him four more times. The closest bout was 2-0, 4-0 for him. (not good memory). This is what training does for you. It is vital. Alexander Karelin, the consensus greatest wrestler ever (13 straight World/Olympic wins with no losses in that time) accredited his sucess to training "harder every day of my life then [his opponents] ever trained in theirs". Alexander applied his training billiantly. Do we?

Personal morality is just as important. Improving ourselves (with the help of God, of course) is a vital and never-ending quest. But it is NOT an ultimate goal. To quote John Eldrege: "Morality? Morality is never the point." It is a means to an end, just like the weight a wrestler can lift is a means to an end- more strength to crush his opponent. The end- our end- as Christians is a better world. A more Christlike world. A world with more faith and less hatred, more love and less violence, more joy and less sadness.

We are often so focussed on being good, and exactly what that entails, that we fight amongst each other instead of against a common enemy. How much Christian thought and literature is devoted to the evils of- and cures to- video games, rock music, mastrubation, drinking, dating, and dancing? (None of these, by the way, is expressly forbidden Biblically.) We can be just as nasty on matters of theology... just mention "evolution" in some churches! What possible good does fighting amongst ourselves do?

The Christian who drops the F-bomb upon hitting his thumb might concievable have a negative impact on someone who hears him. However, given the choice, give me the crude vulgarity of Martin Luther (and occasionally the apostle Paul, who told men to go castrate themselves) to change this world for the better any day! While we pay much attention to the small, visible evils of our neighbours, how much do we focus on the evils condemming our fellow Christians?
Tearing each other apart over legalistic issues? Showing judgement instead of love? Anger instead of grace? And no, I am not advocating a tolerate-everything, wishy- washy Christianity. Just a focus on loving God and our neighbour, solving problems instead of causing more. Who cares if the world is 6000 or 6,000,000,000 years old? What matters is that it's a mess and we can help fix it.

As part of my undergoing wrestling withdrawals, I recently spent time watching some of the all-time greats on youtube. (http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=the1qs has some good ones). As interesting as their similarities (domination on the world stage) were the differences. Each one had outstanding technique, but completely different styles. As differently as these men wrestle, everyone agrees that they are master technicians. We can see the results of their amazing technique... Gold Medals.

Perhaps, as Christians, we too should realize our differences. Realize that even what constitutes "right" might differ from person to person. (It is perfectly moral for some people to have a beer, but not for an alchoholic). Perhaps, we should be striving for results, for the proverbial Olympic Gold. "By their fruits you shall know them", Jesus says of his followers. Solve world hunger. End war. Dismantle Nuclear Weapons. Evangelize the world. Revive a spiritually bankrupt West. (Not individually, of course, but each Christian can have an effect. Together, that adds up to a lot). The world needs this, more than it needs people who refuse to listen to an Eminem cd. The Christians should be the ones demanding intervention in Darfur. Running homeless shelters. Sponsoring children. Navigating the elusive balance between waging a war on terror and striving for peace between societies. The world needs us. These are the "big matches". This is the testing ground, the true measure (I think) of our dedication to a Christ-like life. What are we willing to do, to sacrifice, for others?

("Wait a second. Jens... lots of Christians ARE doing that!" I realize that. That's exactly what we need more of. In my humble opinion, those Christians "get it".)

The quest for personal holiness (perfection?) is a noble one, though (to me) it doesn't seem like much fun. I probably underestimate its importance. However, I am deeply convinced that it is no substitute for an outward-reaching faith, a faith that truly seeks to love our neighbour as ourselves. I do note that many of the Great Heroes of our faith were deeply, horribly flawed. Yet they did great things. Why can't we?

P.S. 1
[I relalize this post is long on idealism and short on actual suggestions. Hopefully my trips to Africa and India, which will be spent largely trying to help the poor, will give me suggestions. Also, I wrote down some ideas in an earlier post: http://filth-man.blogspot.com/2006/09/help-poor-so-i-was-given-priviledge-of.html)

P.S. 2
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A partial list of flawed heroes from Hebrews 11: Noah the drunkard, Abraham the coward who twice offered to give his wife to a foreign king to protect his own butt, Jacob the lifelong cheat and swindler (who also wrestled with God, how cool is that?), Moses the murderer, Rahab the hooker (who did not, as far as we know, quit her job), Samson who scorned God, slept around and killed people recreationally, David who waged some pretty brutal wars and famously stole his own soldier's wife... the list goes on and on. All these were "approved because of their faith", and all of them did great things, so great that God himself applauds them.
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