In the Church you are likely to hear people talking about a desire to become more like Jesus, but if you are like me you don’t hear as much about exactly how that is supposed to happen.
The science of performance
I recently read Peak, a book about the science of improving performance. The book includes a storty about one Dan McLaughlin. McLaughlin had read Malcom Gladwell’s bestselling book, Outliers, in which Malcom Gladwell discussed what he dubbed the “10,000 Hour Rule” – that if a person practices anything for at least 10,000 hours he will become proficient. Gladwell makes a persuasive case based on studies in performance science.
McLaughlin was so convinced of the 10,000 Hour Rule that, at age thirty, he quit his job with the intent of practicing 10,000 hours and qualifying for the PGA Tour. He called this The Dan Plan. And there is one other thing: before implementing The Dan Plan McLaughlin had hardly ever touched a golf club.
A golf example
For those of us who have struggled for years trying to improve at the world’s most frustrating game, the likely outcome of this experiment seemed obvious. Learning golf, particularly as an adult, is hard for a number of reasons, chief among them that almost every natural instinct a person has in swinging a golf club is wrong.
Of course there are teachers to steer one away from those natural instincts, and The Dan Plan included the use of teachers. But still, only 10,000 hours? Master the piano? Possibly. Master Pine Valley? Not likely.
In the end, after four years and 5,000 hours of practice, McLaughlin got down to a 2.6 handicap before he injured his back and gave up on The Dan Plan. Still, the experiment is fascinating and is good proof of Peak’s premise—that the primary driver of extraordinary performance is deliberate practice, not innate ability.
An experiment in human virtue
Because thoughts of God and golf often conflate in my brain, I wondered, “What if a person applied the 10,000 Hour Rule in pursuit of sanctification?” I know this sounds outlandish and unspiritual. As in swinging a golf club, almost every natural instinct we have as fallen human beings is wrong. Also, humans, whose natural instinct is to be bad, don’t typically engage in deliberate practice to be good.
Surprisingly though, there is a well-known case of someone doing just that. He started by creating a list of thirteen virtues he wanted to master. He then focused on one virtue per week, tracking his success or failure in a chart. After thirteen weeks he repeated the process, cycling through all thirteen virtues four times in a year.
I was surprised to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined; but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish.
Years later, writing of the experiment, he said, “ I was surprised to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined; but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish.” He concluded that while he had fallen far short of the perfection he sought, “I was, by the endeavor, a better and a happier man than I otherwise should have been.” The person was Benjamin Franklin.
How this applies to us
The Apostle Paul knew something about sanctification. He spoke of pressing on to become like Jesus. See Philippians 3:12 (“Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on . . .”). He encouraged the Philippians to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work you. . .” Philippians 2:12-13. There is work to be done on our part, a form of deliberate practice.
We could call it The Paul Plan, but it is really The Jesus Plan. Like The Dan Plan, we have a teacher to correct our wrong impulses, but He is divine, and He not only teaches us but also empowers us to be conformed to the image of Jesus. John 14:26 (“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things…”).
The Jesus Plan, though, is only for those who have already become Christians. It does no good to try to become more like Jesus until you have repented, been redeemed, and gotten right with God. If you try to get good before you get right you will only get frustrated.
If you try to get good before you get right you will only get frustrated.
But for those of us who have become Christians and been filled with the Holy Spirit, all this talk of The Dan Plan, Benjamin Franklin, and deliberate practice has been intended to lead to this one question: What would happen if those of us who are Christians and golfers put the same deliberate practice into becoming like Jesus as we do in trying to become like Tiger Woods? GS
