ECIPLESHIP for Passionate Christ-Followers

The harder we try, the less we succeed. This is a truth that rules over so many things in life.

If you golf, you know what happens when you’re going to hit the pepper out of that ball. You can feel the energy inside of you coming out in a rush down your arms, exploding in your wrists, and coming out through every one of your fingers as you master the club in your grip. As you unleashed your furious swing, your mind already sees the pulverized ball blazing with a beauty never before seen with incredible speed and accuracy exactly to the spot you want…only 50 yards further down the endless fairway. FINALLY — when contact happens – the wretched little ball does nothing you had imagined. Instead, it harmlessly squirts off  the blade of your club and embarrassingly dribbles almost to the women’s tee box (if you’re a man anyway).

I have golfed with guys already that, if you didn’t get past the women’s tee box, you needed to drop your shorts. Better not try so hard…

The harder we try, the less we succeed applies to golf…and so many other more important life issues. By the way, it’s incredibly biblical.

Paul explains how after committing his entire life to trying as hard as he could, it took giving up in order for him to succeed. Philippians 3 states:

⁵ I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law. ⁶ I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.

⁷ I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. ⁸ Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ ⁹ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ.

For Paul and for us, it’s not a matter of trying, but trusting.

Absolutely, the Word has numerous passages that talk about effort — running to win, press on for the prize, etc. But all of these things are in the context of making sure we’re doing this Christ-following thing in His strength and not in our own. Trying your best must come in the context of trusting Him more.

Out staff was talking about the flow of the Spirit this week — about how much we hope to never inhibit or stop the flow of the spirit among us here at Edinbrook. One of our team-members said, “The flow of the Spirit is so much like an Artesian spring. If you stop up it’s flow, it will find another channel to follow and flow out of another place.” With that in mind, consider this statement by Richard Rohr, a Franciscan priest, “Faith does not need to push the river because faith is able to trust that there is a river. The river is flowing. We are in it.”

Psalm 127 changed my life many years ago when I finally grasped it’s life-giving truth:

¹ Unless the Lord builds a house,
the work of the builders is wasted.
Unless the Lord protects a city,
guarding it with sentries will do no good.
² It is useless for you to work so hard
from early morning until late at night,
anxiously working for food to eat;
for God gives rest to his loved ones.

It’s not about trying harder. It’s about trusting more.