Consistency Archives - Spartan Christianity

Commitment

Commitment is a decaying attribute of men of the world.

“Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.”
Psalm 37:5

Very few people are truly committed to the Church. Most are just there because it is tradition passed down from generation to generation. The tradition is maintained because it is easy. There are no real trials, no pressing threats, nothing that makes it difficult to be “Christians”.

Because of this, there is very little real commitment in the Church. People are committed to the Church in the same way that people are committed to spin class. They come into worship and “do it” because it makes them feel good, but if they had to face a real struggle for one second on account of their faith, they would leave.

Men are barely committed to their wives. They are more committed to watching football on Saturday than they are to building their marriage. These men are more committed to their morning television than to relationships.

They are more intimate with sports than with their wives. This is a disgrace.

The ease of life in the modern world has made it so that commitment is not necessary anymore. No one has to make a long-term commitment to anything. Every problem can be fixed quickly with a few “easy” payments of $19.95.

Men commit for good while the beta commits based on his emotional feelings at the time. As soon as the task becomes difficult, the beta quits. As soon as true challenge presents itself to the masses, the betas are purged.

The man commits for the long term. Man commits to action every day without fail. The man commits to work every day on a goal worth achieving, and in doing so he sets an example for men to come. The man who commits is a man among betas.

Mantra

Men never fail their commitments.

Application

The action does not have to be huge, it just requires commitment. Getting to the gym and doing just three sets of an exercise every day is more than you have been doing before. Commit to keep your habits every day, without fail, and then over time build on them and make them longer. Consistency is more important than being a flash in the pan.

Write down the habits you want to build. After this, look at your habits and pick the easiest one to start. Look at that habit and figure out what action you could take right now towards that goal and start doing it. If you want to start reading your Bible, read small sections instead of jumping immediately into one of those “read your Bible in a year” programs. As great as those are, right now you may not have the discipline or commitment necessary to to maintain that much reading. Focus on small blocks of reading instead. If your Bible has heading, read one chunk from heading to heading. Be consistent in the reading every day. That is much better than not reading at all.

Be consistent in the tiny details of life if you want success. Be a man of commitment.

Conduct yourselves like Men.

Dedication

Dedication is the only path to lasting growth. And dedication is the only way to continue to improve.

“Dedication is the only way to lasting growth.”

“Blessed is the man, Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, Nor stands in the path of sinners, Nor sits in the seat of the scornful; But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night”
Psalm 1:1-2

Have you quit reading yet? You’ve likely allowed yourself to slip in your discipline. A whole month in and the habit starts to grind on you. It is no longer a fun self-improvement tool, now it’s a chore. It is no longer a way to grow and get better continually, it is something that is annoying. You are tired of growing and progressing. Or maybe you aren’t.

Dedication is the only path to lasting growth. Being dedicated when heaven doesn’t even seem worth it. And dedication is the only way to continue to improve. Even the peace and glory of heaven is not enough to keep us motivated. Because of this, you must conjure the power from within yourself to remain dedicated when you would want nothing more than to quit. With all the pleasures in life, why would you deprive yourself of them for some goal you don’t even want?

The dedicated soul must embrace the fact that his motivation will die many times over. His dedication will be the only thing that keeps him alive and pushing.

Men are dedicated. Boys are carried about by emotion. Men act regardless of how they feel. Boys depend on their motivation.

Mantra

Dedicate every day to progress.

Application

Override the voice in your head that tells you that you aren’t feeling like doing what is right today. Shut it down. Immediately turn your thoughts to something else, it does not matter what.

I don’t feel like writing this passage today, yet here I am. How you feel is irrelevant, your action is all that matters.

Get up. Get moving. Crush goals and improve. Because if you can improve and grow on days when you don’t feel like it, imagine the limitless power of growth you will have when you do feel like working. Be Dedicated. Reject Emotionalism. Take Action.

Conduct Yourselves Like Men.

Burnout

Feeling burnout with the gospel?

“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.”
Galatians 6:9

Have you become weary with the commands of God? Are you worn out with everything He asks of His servants? Do you feel tired of going to church week after week after week. If you are, do not worry, it is normal, It is going to happen. The weight of the law begins to take its toll on your mind.

You don’t bear the gospel the way the weak emotional liberals bear it, or the way the radical dogmatic conservatives bear it. You bear it in truth, trying to examine the law with your own mind and make your own decisions about what it says and what it means. For this reason many people degenerate into emotional liberalism or dogmatic conservatism because it is so difficult to think for yourself and to decide about faith for yourself. To continue trying to “work out your own salvation” (Phil 2:12) will eventually cause you to burnout.

Burnout isn’t a problem, it’s part of the process of growth.

You aren’t having your spiritual growth handed to you, instead you are working for it. You aren’t being spoon fed the gospel like a fat baby, you are digging into it using your rational mind, and it is difficult. The work is overbearing. The effort is titanic. Yet you must do it.

To degenerate into emotionalistic liberalism is not the way of men.

To degenerate into dogmatic conservatism is not the way of men.

Both of these doctrines minimize the use of the rational mind. One points to your emotions to justify what you think, the other looks to tradition to justify actions that may or may not be Biblical. Use your own mind like a man. Overcome burnout with dignity. Burnout will pass away with time and give way to new growth. It is like a forest that catches fire – it burns, then it grows back on the rick soil made from the ashes of the past.

Mantra

This weariness is only for a short time.

Application

Unfortunately, overcoming the burnout seems to be one of those situations that requires you to just wait out the sorrow; the same applies to depression. That doesn’t mean you stand around doing nothing – you have to constantly add new knowledge, skills and strength every day. When you add new knowledge and wait out the siege of the burnout, you can overcome and move on. And when the burnout comes back again, repeat the process. Your goal is to endure the temporary state of being burned out and shorten that period of time by adding new knowledge.

Conduct Yourselves Like Men.

Watch this video Series on Burnout.

Apply

To Apply knowledge is the only true form of learning.

“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”
James 1:22

“Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do.”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

People walk into the Church building, sit for an hour or two, then walk out. They learn nothing and make no changes to their daily actions. Their life goes on from week to week in this same manner and they still think they are doing what is right. They live a life of ease with no application of knowledge. Constantly “learning”, never applying.

What they do is like going to law school, passing the bar exam yet never stepping into the courtroom. Or going to college, then medical school, residency and internship and yet never applying what you learned in a medical practice. Christians live the same way, going to Church at all the “right times” and in all the “right ways” while wearing the “right clothes”, yet never actually doing the things they need to do.

The Bible is a book of actions, not one of weak emotions.

Pathetic men are the ones who sit in the pews week after week and still do nothing with their faith. This is wrong. The Word is a Weapon, a Sword that must be used against enemies. It is not good enough to know what to do and it is not enough to want to do it, it must be applied. The best workout plan in the world will do nothing to transform your body if you don’t actually do the workout plan.

Weak men talk.

Real men Do.

Be a Man.

Mantra

To apply is the only acceptable behavior.

Application

How do you apply the philosophy of application? By doing. It’s not complicated. It is consistent action over time. That is what brings victory in any endeavor.

Whenever you are learning a new skill or reading a new book, try to absorb something you can immediately start using in your life. If no behavior change takes place, then we aren’t really learning.

Applying what we know also accelerates learning. Because by testing our new knowledge, we can determine if it is true or not. Whatever you are doing, you must apply it. Resist the urge to read books just for the sake of reading them. Avoid doing things to try to look “cool”. Apply knowledge so you improve as an individual.

Conduct Yourselves like Men.