Lover of the Triune God, my wife, kids, God's people, coffee & books. I blog at http://garlandvance.com. Pastor of Leadership Development of Grace Fellowship.

Jun 4, 2016

What a Karate Instructor Taught Me about Spiritual Disciplines

**photo credit:** **Laura goes for the 2nd Dan Black Belt #2** **via** **photopin** **(license)**

After coming to know Christ, a litany of spiritual disciplines followed:

study the Bible,
pray,
fast,
silence and solitude,
journal,
meet in small groups,
take notes on sermons,
memorize Scripture,
read devotional material.

The list could continue. I practiced many of these for several years. Some of them led to significant growth in my relationship with Christ.

But a few years ago, many of these disciplines became dry. Though I had become proficient at some of them, they no longer facilitated growth. Many of these spiritual disciplines had been life-giving. Now, they felt like an obligation that added to my busyness.

I found myself asking, Why am I practicing these spiritual disciplines? What is the point?

A major breakthrough came from a most unlikely instructor.

[bctt tweet=”You can practice spiritual disciplines for years and never know why you are practicing them.” username=”GarlandVance”]

Learning to Low Block

As I wrestled with these questions, my family started taking karate lessons. During every session, our class practiced a low block. The instructor would guide us through the movements:

Take a large step back with your right foot to give balance.

Bring both hands up beside your face on your right-hand side. Make sure that the backs of your hands are touching.

Forcefully swing your left arm down across your body, stopping in front of your left thigh.

At the same time, bring your right arm back to your waste in a clenched fist so that you are ready to punch.

Our karate class practiced this move hundreds of times in order to master the steps.

But there was a problem: I didn’t understand why I would use this block.

I finally went to one of the instructors, a 3rd-degree black belt, and asked her, “What is the point of this block? What am I trying to do?”

She said, “Imagine that someone is getting ready to kick your left thigh. You want to block that person’s kick and counterpunch him.”

It started making more sense. Then I asked, “So if someone was about to kick me in the upper leg, this is the move that I would do?”

What she said shocked me.

“Well, not exactly. In fact, you’ll never do this exact move. In a real fight, you wouldn’t have time to perfectly perform all these steps. But you will snap one arm down to block and counterpunch with the other hand.”

I asked the logical question, “So why do we practice all these moves if I’m never going to use them in the way we practice them?”

She said, “Muscle memory. You keep practicing this move over and over again in a safe environment. That way, if someone ever attacks you, your muscles automatically know what to do. It won’t look exactly like what you’ve practiced. But it will look a lot like it.”

She continued, “You’ll swing your arm down. You’ll step back for balance. You’ll be ready to strike with your opposite hand. You will do these moves without thinking about it. Automatically. We practice the move over and over so that, in the moment of attack, your body knows what to do without thinking. You’ve practiced your way into a good defense, even if you don’t do the low block exactly like we practiced it.”

A Blackbelt Lesson in Spiritual Disciplines

My karate instructor taught me an important lesson about why we practice spiritual disciplines.

You don’t practice spiritual disciplines to become good at the discipline.

You practice spiritual disciplines to walk with God.

You practice spiritual disciplines so that Christ is formed in you (Gal. 4:19).

You practice spiritual disciplines so that responding like Christ happens automatically — like it’s second nature.

You practice spiritual disciplines so that you can create sanctified “muscle memory” in which you automatically respond to the attacks of the enemy and temptation with obedience and righteousness.

You practice spiritual disciplines so that we can become “good” at living out the abundant life (John 10:10).

[bctt tweet=”Spiritual disciplines create sanctified muscle memory so you can automatically respond with obedience.” username=”GarlandVance”]

J.P. Moreland and Klaus Issler give an excellent analogy for spiritual disciplines. They compare spiritual disciplines to a person who wants to get better at golf:

How does one [become better at golf]? Two things are involved. First, he must dedicate himself to the pursuit of golf righteousness (to getting good at golf), and choose to submit as an apprentice to a master-teacher.

Second, he does not simply engage in a one-time act of dedication to the master-teacher. [Becoming better at golf] requires repeatedly engaging specific body parts in regular activities done over and over again, with the instructor in charge, and practicing different movements…. A golf-discipline is done repeatedly, not to get good at the discipline, but to get good at the game of golf (The Lost Virtue of Happiness: Discovering the Disciplines of the Good Life, 44).

Don’t read the Bible just to read the Bible. Read the Bible so that you automatically know the voice and the thoughts of God.
Don’t memorize Scripture just to know more Bible verses. Memorize Scripture so that the words of God flow out of you automatically even when life gets tough.
Don’t practice silence just to be quiet. Practice silence so that you can automatically stop talking when you need to be silent or when God wants to speak to you.
Don’t journal just to recollect the events of your day. Journal so that you become automatically aware of what God is doing throughout the day.

Spiritual Disciplines for With God Leaders

Spiritual disciplines are critical for all Christians but especially With God Leaders. You need spiritual disciplines so that you can walk with God in every area of life.

So that you can be transformed into the image of Christ.

So that you can hear His voice and follow His will.

So that you can lead others to the places where God is leading.

My Favorite Resource for Spiritual Disciplines

If you’re interested in discovering more about spiritual disciplines or even in learning some new disciplines, I highly recommend Adele Calhoun’s Spiritual Disciplines Handbook. It is comprehensive yet easy to understand.

She provides an assessment to help you determine which disciplines to utilize at this point in your walk with Christ and gives practical guidance to implement each discipline.

If your spiritual disciplines have become dry, it may be that you don’t know why you are practicing them. A black belt karate instructor taught me that we practice spiritual disciplines so that we can learn to respond automatically.

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