How's Your Spiritual Muscle Memory?
The ability to perform a task without consciously thinking about it is called “muscle memory,” a term that originated with physical activities. Examples include a tennis player’s ability to instinctively hit a difficult backhand shot and a cyclist’s sense of when to shift to a higher or lower gear. All automatically. All without consciously thinking.
This concept also applies to areas other than athletics. As a blues harmonica player, when I am learning an intricate tune, I have to break down each phrase and play it over and over and over again. After repeating a phrase dozens or even hundreds of times, I reach an inflection point where suddenly the notes “just come out.” And even after not playing a particular tune for years, when I return to it, I’m amazed to find it’s all still there. This is muscle memory.
Muscle memory requires two things:
Deliberate practice of the underlying skill involved
Lots of repetition
Although I don’t ever recall anyone specifically applying the concept to our spiritual lives, I think we can. Faithful Christians often meet both requirements:
We practice significant underlying activities like worship, prayer, Scripture reading, fellowship, service, sharing our faith, etc.
We typically repeat these habits a lot
As you read Jesus’ behavioral standards and respond to the Holy Spirit’s promptings in your life, you begin to “just know” what to do and how to act in particular situations. Here are some examples:
Repeatedly reading and taking to heart passages like the Sermon on the Mount eventually drives their truths deep into your heart and into your actions.
If you’ve developed the habit of giving part of your income to further God’s work, when you get an unexpected windfall, one of your first impulses will probably be to give some of it away.
After you’ve seen God’s faithfulness through numerous crises, you may instinctively turn to him when new tragedy strikes.
Bottom line: following Jesus becomes second nature, and it reshapes and transforms you.
As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:16, we have the mind of Christ. Although this doesn’t mean we’re infallible, it does mean our thoughts can become increasingly like his. This is especially true as we continuously behold as in a mirror (which is an example of muscle memory’s repetition requirement) the glory of the Lord and are transformed into his image through the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Three Ways to Go Wrong
Of course, we can mess anything up, and there are at least three ways you can fail to live in the joy of spiritual muscle memory:
Not practicing it all and failing in either the basic disciplines or the rigor of frequency
Going the opposite way and turning these beautiful spiritual disciplines into legalistic requirements
Becoming so “disciplined” that you crowd out the Holy Spirit, failing to draw on his power or respond to his promptings
The ideal blend involves:
Regularly and joyfully participating in activities that build Christ-like character
Not turning these disciplines into empty rituals
Always being attuned to the Holy Spirit’s leading that might take you in unexpected directions
Routine and discipline are great, but you must always leave room for the Holy Spirit to redirect you as he sees fit.
So, back to my original question: How’s your spiritual muscle memory?