No Accidental Saints
I am a huge NBA fan, so naturally last week while on vacation, I found myself watching the entire four-hour broadcast of both nights of the NBA draft. During the draft, there were a few players the broadcasters made a special note about that stood out to me. Several of the players that were drafted were between the ages of 19-21 and were said to have “not started playing basketball” until they were 14 or 15. How can someone just pick up a new sport or hobby and be good enough to play at the highest-level just a few years later?
I mean, have you ever stumbled across a hobby or skill that you were naturally an expert at almost immediately? Yeah, me neither.
However, how often do we practice something and want to skip all the hard work of mastering it? I am a perfectionist, and find myself constantly wanting to speed up the process to get to the results. I want to be an expert immediately, but that’s just not how life works.
Watching these players excel so quickly made me think about how often I want rapid results in my own life. My relationship with Jesus is no different. I find myself wanting to master spiritual disciplines and healthy rhythms without putting in the work of getting used to the practice of these. And every time this is my mindset, I am greeted with the reality that this is not how Jesus works. In fact, the opposite is true.
Following Jesus isn’t a skill to be perfected, but a lifestyle to be practiced.
John Mark Comer says it this way in his book Practicing the Way:
“There are no accidental saints. You can't just slip your hand up at the end of a sermon. It's a high bar of entry: It will require you to reorder your entire life around following Jesus as your undisputed top priority, over your job, your money, your reputation - over everything. Yet all these things will find their rightful place once integrated into a life of apprenticeship.”
Following Jesus takes intentionality. It takes determination. It involves a daily decision to follow Jesus, and momentary decisions to do things His way. Just like you cannot expect to be physically fit after one workout, or financially stable without creating a budget, you can’t expect to magically be committed to Jesus without work.
D.A. Carson put it this way:
“People do not drift toward holiness. Apart from grace-driven effort, people do not gravitate toward godliness, prayer, obedience to Scripture, faith, and delight in the Lord.”
Translation: You won’t trip and fall in love with Jesus. You won’t wake up one morning magically sanctified and ready to live your calling. The process of becoming more like Jesus takes time and practice. It is hard. It is messy. But it is worth it.
John Mark Comer puts it bluntly:
“Christlikeness is possible, but it is not natural.”
It will require you to regularly lay down your desires and trust that His are better. This means denying my way for His way, believing that His way is best. That’s why Jesus made it clear that “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23). Following Jesus means rejecting our way and what we think is best, and reorienting our thoughts to what Jesus taught and practiced.
I am writing this as a reminder to you, but also (especially) to myself. This is my struggle, and I am inviting accountability because we all need others to help us practice choosing Jesus daily. You don’t have to get it perfect. You just have to keep showing up, and Jesus will meet you there.
Thanks for reading. I appreciate you.
Philip