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Key Bible Verse: Spend your time and energy in training yourself for spiritual fitness ( 1 Timothy 4:7). Bonus Reading: 1 Timothy 4:7-8

Several years ago I was mesmerized by the amazing talent of a pianist named Chris Crossan. After playing a wide spectrum of music, spanning from Bach to Beethoven to the Beatles, he invited an admiring student to come up and play. The student was thrown off balance. He wasn't timid. He just didn't know how to play the piano! As if he'd missed this important information, Chris insisted, emphasizing that the student was free to play anything he wanted. Again the embarrassed student explained that he didn't know how.

Then Chris pressed his point. Although the student had the opportunity, he really didn't have the freedom. Chris's freedom to play the full spectrum of music, to passionately express the music within his soul, was only available to him as a result of years of discipline. There's a gauntlet you must be willing to pass through to be most free. At first the pursuit of Christian character has the feel of learning scales. But later what is formed becomes music to your ears. There's a discipline of the heart that marks the free spirit. All of us long to play the song within our souls, and I imagine we would if it didn't require the endless hours of studying the notes.

—Erwin McManus in Uprising

My Response: What "scales" do I need to work on right now?

Thought to Apply: In the truest sense freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved. —FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT (32nd U.S. President)

Adapted from Uprising (Word, 2003) by permission.

Copyright © 2005 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine. Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Lord, I want to become a disciple You can count on; grant me self-discipline to get started.

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