Just do it!

Hebrews 5:11-14 NLT

There is much more we would like to say about this, but it is difficult to explain, especially since you are spiritually dull and don’t seem to listen. You have been believers so long now that you ought to be teaching others. Instead, you need someone to teach you again the basic things about God’s word. You are like babies who need milk and cannot eat solid food. For someone who lives on milk is still an infant and doesn’t know how to do what is right. Solid food is for those who are mature, who through training have the skill to recognize the difference between right and wrong.

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Am I spiritually dull? Do I fail to listen?  Do I have spiritual insight and teaching to offer others?

What are the marks of maturity in the Christian life? Aren't they clear here in Hebrews 5? The author explains it is knowing how to do what is right. Knowing how to do right didn't come easily. A person must train. This is the real spiritual discipline.

Some time ago I had developed a rather nice routine of cycling and swimming. The skills did not come quickly. It required a daily attempt to do what at first seemed a simple task. Well,  as easy as riding a bicycle. And swimming, according to my knowledgeable swim coach, was a simple set of steps to a smooth stroke. But in each case I had to practise. I had to break down the steps and make sure nearly every day I was thinking about and practising them. Stay straight in the pool to create a minimum of drag or keep my body streamlined. It was the same on the bicycle and both with a steady cadence or rhythm.

You might know what's right but do you have the repetition to keep doing it while fatigue sets in? The person who has suffered the pain of discipline can make it look easy but knows that it is actually only really because of practice and discipline.

Do you actually know what is right to do? Often in sport it is a subtle personal change in motion or attitude and thought process that adds the miles or shaves the minutes. But for these gains to become repeatable, expected, teachable, reproducible, daily actions we have to humble ourselves to make slight but important changes. We have to study the right way. Some athletes and coaches spend hours watching the best in video, and often in slow motion, trying to figure out what makes the best so good. Then they try to reproduce it.
Shouldn't the Christian look to Jesus and his word everyday? Shouldn't we study the nuances of his righteous life? Shouldn't we practise repeatedly? Shouldn't we ask spiritual coaches to point out our flaws and the areas where we can improve?

Are you training to do right? Do you really know the difference? Is your spiritual life poetry in motion because of the pain and discipline of practice? A righteous life doesn't come from thinking you know it all or from sitting on your back side assuming you can do it right. Train in righteous! Just do it!