Friday, September 18, 2015

Practice Makes...

September 18, 2015

"Practice Makes Perfect." So goes the old saying. Years ago, about twenty Park church people traveled to Syracuse to hear John Maxwell speak on leadership. The conference was outstanding; that's the way Maxwell worked. We were operating on a shoestring budget, so we crowded as many people into a motel room as we could. Two double beds held four guys, while one set up a cot at the foot of one of the beds and another couple just stretched out on the floor. I'm not betraying any confidences when I say that Gordie snored like a train. He actually warned us, but when you wake up someone in the adjacent room, you know this guy was a world-class snorer! We had a great time together, and it was along with other such conferences, a turning point in the life of the church as we learned what it meant to develop leaders.

In one of his presentations, Maxwell took issue with that old saying. "Practice doesn't make perfect," he intoned. "Practice makes permanent." Most of us had never thought of that, but it makes sense. Even professional athletes need trainers who can spot something that through practice has become habitual, but which impedes progress to the next level. Practice a bad habit long enough, and it will become second nature. It's important that the things we practice are the right things.

I've been practicing my bass for the jazz band. It's easy to slip into old habits of grasping the neck like I'm holding onto a baseball bat instead of resting my thumb on the neck and arching my fingers over the fretboard. Unfortunately, that bad habit makes it nearly impossible to do some of the runs I need to be able to do for the music we're playing. It's not enough that I practice; I have to practice doing it the right way.

Awhile back, a pastor friend of mine wrote an article about the postures we assume in prayer. He said that in Scripture, only three postures are mentioned: prostrate on the ground, kneeling, or standing with eyes uplifted and hands outspread. Then he added, "There's no mention of the common Evangelical posture of the "holy crouch," where we sit doubled over or leaning with elbows on a table. He made me think. I wonder if the times I've struggled with prayer have had relatively simple answers: pray audibly, stand up or bow down, keep the eyes open. Too often I've tried praying silently, but my mind wanders. If I close my eyes, I fall asleep.

We are not mere spirits who happen to inhabit bodies. Our bodies are a central part of who we are. We are dust into which God breathed his life. To minimize the significance of posture or audible words is to not take seriously the importance of the body. I've slipped into bad prayer habits over the years, but God is patiently reprimanding me and slowly unravelling the patterns I've developed. Practice made, not perfect, but permanent, and now I'm trying to change that. Hopefully, my new practice methods will make permanent a better and more vibrant prayer life. I may be old, but I'm grateful I'm not so set in concrete that I can't unlearn my bad habits and learn a few new bass licks or a few new prayer patterns.

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