JUST SAY “YES”.... “NO”?

It all sounds so easy, so simple, maybe even so right. The temptation to that not-ever-needed donut: just say "no." The need to get up at 6:00 for the always-needed exercise: just say "yes”. As we have all discovered, however, it is never that easy. That is why we are in the shape we are in spiritually and, perhaps, physically. That is to say, out of shape. There have been too many yeses when there should have been nos and vice versa. And so often when we did make the right response, the effort to respond was half-hearted at best.

Is that to say that we are really just lukewarm Christians, tepid people who hardly ever give it our very best when the best is what is demanded? I can only speak for myself, and I know the answer. My physical appearance often has a direct correlation to what my spiritual beings looks like. Self-discipline pervades our whole being, physical as well as spiritual. Appearances, of course, can always be deceiving, but not always.

Knowing what to do and doing it is not always the way it works out in life. Most of the time we know what we should or should not do. The problem is that we do not always do what we know should be done. One of the main reasons why this is true is that we try to do it -- whatever the "it" is -- alone. But we are not created either to be alone (see Genesis) or to live out our lives alone, all by ourselves, with no support (see the New Testament, most anywhere).

In order for us to really live, really practice a Christian life, we need two ingredients. First, we need our own intention to live that life: to say "yes" when we should say "yes" and to say "no" when we should say "no." Second, we need help, help in the form of a supportive community of faith. We can say "no" to a temptation for a while, but probably not for long and certainly not forever if we do not have the love and support of others.

Self-discipline is important and it is vital. We can have a whole community of people who love and support us, cheering us on; but if we do not do our part, their love and support will go for naught. Yet once we decide to get in shape, we know that it will not come easy. We've all fought those same battles before and lost.

Living out the practicing of our faith is a process, a year-round processes. We don't do it just in Lent or just in Advent. Advent and Lent may be training camps; but as with athletes who have to be in shape when they come into the camp, so do we. Advent and Lent are times to hone our skills not develop them. We develop them by using them all year long.

Athletes find that during their "off season -- something which we do not have as Christians -- they stay in shape by working out together. They support and encourage one another. As a church community we do the same. We stay in shape, get into shape, together. Again, without that support and encouragement, that love we have one for another, it will be difficult if not impossible for us to say "yes" when we should say "yes" and to say "no" when we should say "no." To extend the analogy, living out our life of faith involves teamwork. We do it, live it together, or else not at all.