Part I

Proverbs 24: 3-6

By wisdom is a house built,
by understanding is it made firm;
And by knowledge are its rooms filled
with every precious and pleasing possession.
A wise man is more powerful than a strong man,
and a man of knowledge than a man of might;
For it is by wise guidance that you wage your war,
and the victory is due to a wealth of counselors.


By work and grace a Christian becomes holy. It's unusual for primarily Grace
to fall upon a person in an immediate way, especially in a way of
permanence. So work becomes a primary characteristic of what needs to be
done in the Christian life. Prayer and Fasting, and also Conversion and the reception of Grace.

In the Church today, rarely is this inner work ever spoken of. Instead is
highlighted a vague conception of relationships and the necessity of love,
but all this is without a trusted foundation. How does one open a hardened
heart? How does one free oneself from one's own vices? What is the prize one
receives at the end of the journey?

These are hard questions. And the answer is usually two-fold: presumption or
a menu-list of options. Presumption nor a menu-list of options can open a
hardened heart however. Presumption clouds the judgment with promises that
the Lord will take care of everything. And a menu-list of things one must do
to inherit the kingdom can become a static threshold of purely Spiritual
limbo.

Just as God is not static, a Christian is not static in their relationship
with Him. There is the duality of work and grace. And Work is real work. And
Grace becomes real Grace.

A spiritual athlete trains for his own salvation. It doesn't matter where he
is at, but rather that he trains. His vision is on a goal, the spiritual
one. There is no ending to his training until he receives the crown of
Heaven. He does not believe in a lazy presumption that the Lord will take
care of everything. A menu-list of things he must do becomes a powerful tool
rather than a 'satisfying work'. He reaches higher and higher. Misfortune
gives him a greater impetus, since his perception is on the training, as
well as trust in the Lord seeing him through. He, and only he, will endure
until the end.

Part II

Though the Trinity has no challenger, in the spiritual world there is
providentially a positive and negative charge. This enables us to choose the
good over the bad. The spiritual athlete knows that their continual choices
of good over the bad will make them grow and to flourish. And that to get to
the positive charge, the truly positive charge, does require suffering.

He knows that it's not about just fleeing from the negative but actively
embracing the positive as well. Not just at the level of a subjective Faith
but more importantly at the level of a living Faith which in turn becomes a
living flame. His temptations become an opportunity to propel his weakness
into strength, his falls into glory, and his darkness into light.

For many in the Church, there exists just the fleeing or there exists a
positive charge that is not direct but rather worldly. Knowledge of the
positive and negative charge in the spiritual world is a vital thing for the
spiritual athlete.

For every negative charge, there Is a positive one. The Alcoholic does need
to get drunk on God, the greedy do need to see and embrace the currency of
heaven, and the adulterer does need to see 3 in the marital covenant.

In a way, this tends to be seen in the realm of 'Faith' and 'Piety'. For
that faith to change into a 'living flame' however, one has to go towards
it. No effort means that there will be no victory. An alcoholic that cannot
see getting drunk on God will never really be truly free. One can substitute
a worldly void, but this is not freedom.

Within a singleness of objective, the struggle is to get to the positive
charge, which becomes actualized as Grace. The struggle involves Fasting (or
fleeing) and Prayer (which instantiates Unity with the positive charge).
Merely fleeing is not enough because the positive charge will never be
actualized within prayer and one is left in a void, and merely praying means
that one will lack the conversion process of traveling to the positive
charge by fleeing from the negative. Both prayer and fasting, if united
within a singleness of objective to get to the other side, the specific
side, creates the dynamism needed to be able to complete the journey.

So the spiritual athlete knows that, regarding his weaknesses, there is a
positive end of the spectrum. Fasting makes him flee from the negative
charge of these things and at the same time Prayer opens the doorway to and
actualizes the positive charge. His weakness changes into strength, his
falls into glories, his darkness into light and he grows in stature. Truly
he is choosing light over darkness.

I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you
life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and
your descendants may live.
Deuteronomy 30: 19

Part III

For when we were in the flesh, our sinful passions, awakened by the law, worked in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, dead to what held us captive, so that we may serve in the newness of the spirit and not under the obsolete letter.
Romans 7:5-6


These spiritual labors form a temple over the spiritual athlete. He is truly free. He has the freedom of a child. He does not note what is moral, but becomes what is moral. He does not need to flee from sin, or the occasions of sin. He is not under the moral law, but the moral law is within him. He has attained the freedom of the children of God. (Gal. 4:26)

His efforts are in the temple of the spiritual labors. In the effort of prayer is Time. In the effort of fasting is Fortitude. And in the effort of Charity is a bodily sacrifice. Or the effort of prayer is how much time he devotes to praying well. The effort of fasting is the perseverance and fortitude within his fast and the effort of charity reveals itself in a sacrificial bodily action.

Some struggle with the moral law, and others believing themselves to be free break it. The spiritual athlete has the moral law more and more written upon his heart. And he has a mandate to be free.


The Spiritual Athlete

“Similarly, an athlete cannot receive the winner’s crown except by competing according to the rules.”
- 2 Timothy: 5

Chosen by baptism and confirmed in grace, the spiritual athlete sets his eyes on running the race. Yet how does he run the race without knowing what the rules are? How does he become equipped to run the race? The spiritual life consists of prayer, fasting and charity. In these three actions, are what a spiritual athlete has for his focus.

For the spiritual athlete, the spiritual labors of prayer, fasting and charity are in a united confederation. A confederation that gives balance to the quest of holiness. If charity becomes missing, then prayer and fasting may bring the athlete to become self-centered. So in essence works of charity negate the temptation toward being selfish in his acts of prayer and fasting. Each thing brings balance to the other.

"Prayer, fasting and charity. The whole of prayer, fasting and charity. And nothing but prayer, fasting and charity."

The whole of the Spiritual Life centers around these spiritual labors. If one is missing then a vital pillar of the spiritual life is missing. Together they form one spiritual muscle.

A dynamic muscle that fills the spiritual athlete with the spirit of the Lord, and the blessing of God. All of the acts that move us toward the Lord are contained in these spiritual labors, uniting in different frequencies and shades of light but nonetheless composed of these three most basic conceptual spiritual labors. Which means that there is no escape from sin, there is no spiritual warfare, there is no worship of the Lord outside of these three endeavors which sit as pillars unto themselves. If such illusions (that there is some other mystery) do occur, then they will weaken the resolve and devotion of the athlete.

In prayer, fasting and charity is the solution to every problem. It is the answer to every, "What must I do?". It is the grace to live a Christian life. And it is even more than these things.

When these spiritual labors become a delight and a paradise, then the spiritual athlete can run the race equipped. And while the winner’s crown lies at the end, yet in the running actually lies the most pleasing fragrance to the Lord.