Training

We're all familiar with training. We've all done it. We all do it. What is it? Formally, training is teaching to make fit or qualified or proficient. It is the process of discipline. Fine. Easy stuff. But there is an interesting aspect to our usual training. We train for "no reason." No, not technically "no reason," but we train for things we are not currently doing. Doctors train to become doctors first by doing doctor things on nonhumans. You don't want them learning (and failing) on a real person. Soldier types learn to fight before they go to war. You don't want them finding out the hard way they don't have a clue. Teams train together before they compete with other teams. The training is ultimately for a purpose, but initially it is not direct, typically.

This is why you hear students say, "Aw, why do I have to learn (fill in their least favorite subject material)? I'm never gonna use it." It's because they're not using it. Their only use for it is in the classroom, and that, generally, is pretty useless. So why do we train them in the classroom? So they have it readily at hand when they need it.

We could learn from this in our spiritual walk. We often press in to learn about what God thinks about what's currently going on. How do I deal with an illness, a loss, a temptation? How do I handle hard times that I'm facing? How do I choose from among the options before me? All understandable and real. But what if we had trained in advance? What if we studied Scripture, for instance, and found that God was Sovereign. Really Sovereign. Meh. That's nice. Moving on. If it isn't a pressing need, we can just glance over it. But what if we trained in it? What if we examined it, looked at what God had to say about it, see how far "sovereign" really goes? What if we grasped the edges of it and see what it encompasses. What if we renewed our minds on the topic so that we thought that way even if it wasn't a pressing need? If we trained in it before we needed it, you know what would happen? Our habit, our instinctive, our gut response would be different when we needed it. We could response with "God is Sovereign" at the moment we needed it instead of having to claw our way under pressure through Scripture to possibly, finally find some relief in it.

The military trains their people long and hard so that their instinctive responses are what they need to be in military situations. Making critical responses instinctive can give a soldier an edge over others who have to think about it first. That's the point of training. If we can make godly responses a matter of instinct before we have to use them, it would make us more solid, more confident, more responsive, better prepared. The military does it. Perhaps we ought to be training in righteousness the same way. Oh! I know just the place to do it (2 Tim 3:16-17)!