Week 1: Incarnation

Training for Godliness

Imagine a story with me today.

It’s a warm summer night. You have the AC cranked up and a bowl of popcorn.

You turn on the Summer Olympic Games, excited to see your country swim for a gold medal. You've heard about the swimming star of the men's 400 freestyle. He's supposed to be the fastest in the world and might even break the world record. It seems like forever, and your popcorn is half done by the time the coverage finally finds him as he comes out from the locker room in his robe.

You think it's odd when you see him put out a cigarette while trying to hide it from the camera. He scratches his head a few times like he just woke up. His eyes are blurry and a little red. Finally, he steps up to the podium to get ready for the race.

He yawns loudly and takes off his robe. Where you expect to see a chiseled swimmer's body with strong, square shoulders, instead, you behold a beer belly and soft, frail shoulders. Whereas all the other swimmers are shaved clean to keep off any resistance or drag in the water, he looks like Chewbacca. You specifically note the absurd amount of hair on his feet and toes. “Well, maybe he's a prodigy,” you think.

The swimmers rise to their podiums. You notice he is a little wobbly as he tries to reach down and grab the front. Finally, the gun sounds. The other swimmers dive powerfully and gracefully through the water, cutting it like glass, but he enters with a belly flop and a loud, painful scream. Still, his stroke doesn't look too bad; obviously, he knows what to do in a pool. Yet, after only 20 meters, you can tell he's out of breath. In the end, he couldn't even finish the first lap.

It's absurd to imagine a person making it to the Olympics and not spending the time or energy to train for the games.

Paul writes in today’s passage, “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.”

We would think it absurd that someone would show up for the Olympics having not trained or prepared. Yet, most of us spend so little time training on the most critical work of godliness. It’s the most important training we can do. Participating in our formation holds eternal promises with abundant life to come.

Have you trained in the incarnation this week?

If not, what is keeping you from training?

As you read through the passage for today, think about how Paul is teaching Timothy to train for godliness. How might this training apply to your life as well?