This is a follow-up post to my previous post about Discipline.
My wife and I finished P90X. We had to move a couple of days around, but we did all of the workouts in the schedule within the 90 days. The only workouts we didn't do were the optional stretching days, which ended up being rest days (as well as travel days, "we worked on other things" days, etc.).
I did not continue reading "Celebration of Discipline," and I did not do a weekly follow up. That may still happen.
But I have continued to think and to learn. I am thinking about the difference between saying you will do something, and actually doing it.
We (Deb and I) said we would do P90X, and we actually did it.
I said I would do a weekly chapter summary, and I didn't do it.
...
I am going to apply this to my own Christian life. I am a long-time, long-term, committed follower of Jesus Christ, as I understand Him in my 21st century, Canadian, Evangelical context. I have said the "right" things and am accepted as a member of our local church.
But am I "actually" living as a Christian? What would that mean?
First of all, it has nothing to do with me not sinning. If holiness in our lives was a prerequisite for "actual" Christianity, none of us could get started. We may asymptotically approach that goal, but that would be an outcome of our Christian walk, not the means of it.
Am I a public, outspoken, obvious evangelist and "good-deed doer"? Have you read Matthew 6? We are to do our good deeds in private. So that's not it.
So my "not smoking, not drinking, not dancing, not chewing" doesn't get me there. And my Sunday morning attendance doesn't get me there either.
What does Jesus "actually" want?
I am committing (ha!) to following up on this post. But I'm going to leave it there for now.
What do you think "Actual Christianity" would mean? And what have we added on to it, that hides the truth?
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