About the Sport Principle
A lot of sportspeople believe that natural talent is only one-tenth of what you need to succeed in top level sport! The other nine-tenths are down to sheer determination and the willpower to succeed. This is not saying that talent isn’t important, talented people often have the edge and make some things look easy, however, they often work hard and spend hours training in order to be at the top of their game. An example of this is Lionel Messi. The Barcelona footballer is no doubt talented, but he wouldn’t have got to become one of the best footballers in the world with talent alone. He has spent hours training and practising his skills to perfection.
Application to Life
This principle is good and bad news at the same time! We can be encouraged that we don’t need much talent in order to be effective for God’s Kingdom, but at the same time, we know God expects us to put lots of effort in! Acts 12, and Peter’s supernatural jailbreak is a great example of this principle, and these twin tracks in action: (Please read Acts 12 and remind yourself of the narrative). The chapter opens with Herod, who is a people-pleasing person, having already put the apostle James to death with the sword, so when Peter is arrested, he knows Herod is not having a laugh. The only thing that has got in the way of Peter’s immediate execution is this minor inconvenience of the Passover celebration. Peter knows that as soon as that is out of the way, he is facing certain execution. Guarded by an elite squadron of Roman soldiers as he awaits his fate, I have no idea what I would be doing in Peter’s situation. One thing I am certain I wouldn’t be doing is what Peter is doing: sleeping.
How can Peter sleep in this situation? I think that for the answer to this question, we need to go back to John’s account at the back end of his Gospel when he records Jesus saying to Peter that whereas now Peter does what he wants and goes where he wants, when he is old, someone else will lead him to where he does not want to go and make him do what he does not want to do. (Of course, Jesus was speaking of the death by which Peter would glorify God – Church history has it that Peter was Crucified upside down in his 70s). Right now, Peter is still a relatively young man, and he knows that because of Jesus’ promise, until his old age, he is immortal! He must have been thinking: “I don’t know how you’re going to get me out of this Lord, but I’m pretty excited to see how it works out.” And then he goes to sleep.
The rest is history. An angel appears, gives Peter a kick and tells him to get his coat on because it’s cold outside (or words to that effect). For us, it’s really interesting to observe how God portions out the responsibility between the angel (God’s representative) and Peter (representing us). The angel takes out the guards, deals with Peter’s chains, and opens numerous doors and gates for Peter on his way out of jail, all of which Peter cannot do for himself, but the angel tells Peter to get up and dress himself, and the angel waits. Why does the angel not just click his fingers and Peter is dressed? He could do that, he’s an angel. The answer is that Peter can do that for himself, and God expects him to. The truth is, God often expects us to do a whole lot more than we think we’re capable of and he is often looking to us for stuff that we are praying to the Holy Spirit for breakthrough for. Somebody has got to break that stand-off and act. In Acts 12, the church nearly spectacularly drops the ball, when Peter finally arrives at the one door that the angel doesn’t open for him and he needs another believer to do it. A servant girl named Rhoda won’t let him in because the church, who are praying for his release, don’t believe their own prayers have been answered! Talk about lack of faith! May that never be true of us. Even though our part of the deal is only one tenth of the equation, let us embrace our part in the knowledge that God is more than able to fulfil his side of the bargain!
“Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.” Acts 12:7
Image credit: Jonathan Borba via Unsplash
