Jesus Rat
Wyatt Webb
time of year is the consolation prize. This is when teams draft some
new talent and start shopping for free-agents. I end up reading a lot
of condensed bios for players that are rumored to be coming to my
team. I want to hear inside scoops about what they're like in the
locker room, how they'll play with the guys already on the team, how
much money they want, and the rest. I suddenly have a deep interest in
the three point field goal percentage for a guy I didn't watch more
than five minutes of last season. It's a little odd being a sports fan
sometimes.
I'm always impressed when I read about the gym rats. That's the
preferred term for the guys who show up early, stay late, and come in
on weekends to practice. These are the guys the coaches have to kick
out of the gym. These are the guys that wear out the assistants that
work with them. I love hearing about that kind of dedication. It takes
a special kind of discipline to stay at the top of your game both when
the lights are on and you show up on ESPN highlights and in the middle
of the summer when you're the only one in the gym and everyone's
talking baseball. That's impressive.
We need to think in a similar manner about how we follow Christ. We
need to discipline our minds and our bodies to be followers of Him
when it's easy and when it's hard. We need to be consistent whether it
feels like you against the world or just you alone with nobody else
around. That takes work:
"For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if
by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will
live," Romans 8:13
"No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached
to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." 1
Corinthians 9:27
It takes physical discipline to avoid the natural tendencies.
"The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can
understand it? 'I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to
reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds
deserve.' " Jeremiah 17:9-10
It takes mental discipline to avoid the natural bent of the human heart.
Above all, it takes the power of the Holy Spirit to make any of this
possible. The discipline is about you letting Him work and not trying
to do it on your own.
Discipline yourself. Just like the players who are known as gym rats,
become a Jesus rat.
Wyatt