"We don't rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training."

Archilochos, Ancient (i.e., dead) Greek poet

The U.S. Navy Seals have an adapted version of Archilochos' statement: "You don’t rise to the occasion, you sink to the level of your training. That’s why we train so hard.” If you've watched any documentary or any fictional movie trying to portray the real life training of Navy Seals, you know that the work candidates put themselves through to emerge as a Navy Seal is both inspiring and intimidating.

But what does practices have to do with spirituality? All this talk of training might seem more like work rather than cultivating a life in God.

There comes a point in every Jesus follower's life where what they believe and what they experience do not match. Often, what may happen is that we leave behind what we believe, opting for some other version of truth that meets our experience of reality.

Perhaps there is a different way for us to meet the challenges of our lives day in and day out, whatever they may be, which looks forward to us changing not what we believe, but being transformed by what we practice despite what we have experienced.

In his book Eternal Current, author Aaron Niequist states, "The path of change involves redirecting our love toward a different object, not filling our heads with ideas. This redirection primarily happens through participating in certain formative practices. Rather than approaching our church gatherings as a classroom (to fill our minds with information) or a concert hall (to move our hearts with emotion), we long to create a spiritual gymnasium, which can form our whole selves.”

In other words, we are sustained by what we practice and not by what we believe.

Now, your discipleship sense might be tingling when you read that.

But invest some time to pause and think about it.

You might believe God is good and then life takes you off your intended course. You might believe Christians are good people and then you are betrayed. You might believe many things about God, His church, and the world, yet your faith (and mine by the way) is rocked when you experience something that appears on the surface contrary to your belief system. You might believe you are a good person and then you do something you thought you would never do.

What do you do then?

If you haven't practiced any formative spiritual practices then you can see your experience as an invitation to begin to do so. And if you have been practicing, you stick to the practices that sustain you and find new ones when the old ones don't work in your current season of life.

To be continued...