Ryan MandevilleRyan Mandeville210162024-02-14T15:34:55Z2024-02-12T10:59:21Z2024-02-15T08:15:35Z48354843137OpenOffice/4.1.14$Unix OpenOffice.org_project/4114m1$Build-9811OpenOffice/4.1.14$Unix OpenOffice.org_project/4114m1$Build-9811 In our sport focused world, we are well aware of the need for training. Which is why Paul uses it 2000 years ago. Back then the training was sometimes for the Olympics, sometimes regional competitions. Today, we have Spring Training in baseball, 2-a-days for High School Fall sports. Weight training, agility training, mental training, basically 35 PHDs working to mold athletes into the finest physical specimen possible. Then there are the trainers at the local gym trying to apply those PHD's findings to our bodies. We know all about training and how much it helps. The question is, “What are we going to spend our time training for?”Now I was a product of 2-a-day training for soccer. We would start on August 15, before school started on September 2, and practice in the morning and then again in the afternoon. So we would have 4-6 hours a day, running drills, conditioning, scrimmages and more. The primary goals were to make the team, be in prime shape, come together as a team, and understand how we were going to operate as a team. A secondary goal was to have us all excited for school to start, so we only had to practice for 2-3 hours a day. The reason this training was so intense, was that once school started and games began, there would not be time to work on these things as intensely. At that point, fine tuning and maintaining was all that practices were there to do. You trained for a season, then lived off that training until after state.The early church followed a similar rhythm of life. It had two seasons of training, Advent and Lent. If you look at the calendar, you will quickly realize those were the quiet seasons of the year. Advent occurring just after the harvest and Lent occurring just before the planting season occurred. That rhythm translates well to even a cruise ship port. After people are done and recovered from the cruise ship season and then before the season starts up again. These 4 and 7 week stretches were slower times of the year where one could have time to examine their life, see what has not been working well, what was not in line with the gospel message, and make the effort to realign their lives.This was done through training. The word translated training in Luke's gospel is Katarizo-