FollowWhat were you forced to practice as a child?
Did you learn an instrument? Or maybe your parents signed you up for a martial art? Maybe, like me, you spent time with mom and dad flipping through multiplication table flash cards.
Do you remember what it felt like at the time? Boring, time-consuming, and probably tiny bits of unnoticed progress here and there. Practice is rarely fun. That is, until you’re able to produce beautiful music, skillfully win a sparring match, or ace that dreaded math test you have on Tuesday.
In short, we practice to form habits.
You might be surprised that the same is often true in the Christian life. We don’t often use the words virtue and vice anymore, so I think one dimension of their meaning has fallen out of use. Virtue and vice aren’t just referring to the good or bad things we do; they refer to acquired habits of character.
You practice the instrument, or you don’t. The result is either a skilled musician or a poor and inconsistent one.
You practice financial generosity to the people around you, or you don’t. The result is someone who is habituallygenerous or someone who is habitually selfish.
Do you see what I mean?
When Paul says “We all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18), surely this is a piece of what he’s referring to. As the Lord renews the inner heart, the outward evidence is not merely one-time acts of kindness and love, but habits of kindness and love.
Now, here’s the challenging part. If we want to become people who practice kindness, mercy, and generosity, we have to purposefully seek out times and places to do it. Many of Jesus’s teachings emphasize the need for perserverence, and I think one of the ways we persevere is by seeking opportunities to put Jesus’s teachings into practice.
How often do you walk around your neighborhood looking to talk to neighbors? Do you talk to them? Get to know them? Set aside time to spend with them? What about the homeless and poor in your neighborhood? Do you speak with them? Are you generous with your money? Or what about those politically different from you? Do you engage them and treat them with kindness and dignity, seeking their well-being? Caring for the things they care for?
It’s easy for us to avoid people who make us uncomfortable, who ask us for our time or our money. But if we want to be Christ’s disciples, those are the very people we need to embrace and love generously. Instead of excusing ourselves from engaging our neighbors, what if we made every effort to connect with them?
Elim, there are ample opportunities all around us to practice our generosity, to develop our kindness, or to fine-tune our mercy. But if this is something we really want, we’re going to need to leave our homes, spend our time, and give our money.
It might not be easy at first, but don’t worry—practice makes perfect.
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