Perfect Takes Practice

It is one of the most troubling statements of Jesus: “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is.”

Is he kidding?

In Malcolm Gladwell’s classic book, Outliers: The Story of Success, he introduced the now infamous “10,000 Hours Rule.” He wrote of a study done at an elite music university in Berlin by a psychologist named Anders Ericsson who observed violin students.

Every student had started learning at the same age, about five years old. They all practiced around the same number of hours. Then Gladwell wrote:

“But when the students were around the age of eight, real difference started to emerge. The students who would end up the best in their class began to practice more than everyone else: six hours a week by age nine, eight hours a week by age twelve, sixteen hours a week by age fourteen, and up and up, until by the age of twenty they were practicing—that is, purposefully and single-mindedly playing their instruments with the intent to get better—well over thirty hours a week. In fact, by the age of twenty, the elite performers had each totaled ten thousand hours of practice. By contrast, the merely good students had totaled eight thousand hours, and the future music teachers had totaled just over four thousand hours.”

Neurologist Daniel Levitin found the same thing with “…basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters . . . chess players, (and) master criminals.” It takes an average of 10,000 hours for the brain “to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery.”

Gladwell even used the Beatles as an example. By the time they came to America, they had played in the gritty strip clubs of Hamburg, Germany seven days a week, eight hours a night, and two-hundred-seventy nights in just a year-and-a-half. Before they made their U.S. debut on the Ed Sullivan show, they had been playing together for seven years and “performed live an estimated twelve hundred times.” Most bands never do that their entire careers.

They hit the 10,000 Hours Rule. Practice makes perfect.

At the end of the most complete sermon we have of Jesus—Matthew 5-7—Jesus finishes with this amazing picture of wholeness and stability:

“Therefore, everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” MATTHEW 7:24

As a follower of Jesus I’ve learned that God is way more interested in my heart than my GPS location—where I’m “supposed to be” and “supposed to be doing”. God probes my core motivations to force me to admit if I’m living by the “me-first” way of life in this world…or if I’m riding the first wave of this ocean of love, hope and faith that is pouring over the planet from God: The Kingdom Come.

What would happen if we began to actually practice Matthew 5-7? What might happen if after 10,000 hours of following Jesus in the way He describes in his sermon, we discovered that this is more that “good advice”? Would that make us more complete, perfect in terms of what God is doing in us in the moment?

Take mercy, for instance, as outlined in the Sermon on the Mount.

Expressing mercy is the ultimate risk-taking venture—X games for the soul. C. S. Lewis wrote that “Pilate…was merciful till it became risky.” It would be nice if Jesus would have given us a select group of people to be merciful to, but He doesn’t leave us that luxury. He simply says, “Love your enemies…and do good to them.”

I’m of the belief that if we actually practiced what Jesus says, our personalities would begin a transformation. And by the way, Jesus didn’t preface this with any exceptions. He didn’t say, “I know some of you have come from dysfunctional families, so just do the best you can.” He actually tells them to be “complete, or perfected, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Teleios is the Greek word meaning completeness, wholeness, perfection—like God himself. It’s not restrictive; rather, it’s liberating…it gives us real life. If we come from dysfunctional backgrounds (and who hasn’t?), it is all the more reason to live this life-giving challenge. If I want to be whole, I must.

I’m not there yet…by far. But I can’t stop. Perfect takes practice.

Dave Workman | Elemental Group

---

Is there clarity in your church regarding your mission, vision, and core values? Maybe it's time for EnVision...a revolutionary gamified approach to charting your church's future. Team-based, self-facilitating, and interactive! Check it out here.