The Theory Is Not Enough // How to Live an Extraordinary Life, Pt 18

A Different Perspective Official Podcast

Ask someone whether they’d like to live an extraordinary life, and most people will say “of course I would”. But then all of a sudden, when they realise that that’s going to involve sacrifices, the vast majority back off. There seems to be a big difference between the theory and the practice.

When I finished High School, almost 40 years ago now, my grades were good enough to mean that I was selected to study medicine at Sydney University. And so I applied for a range of different of courses at different universities. It’s kind of how it worked back then. You applied for several things that interested you and then, depending on your grades, you received one or more offers on the table which you could choose from. Well, mine were law, medicine, computer sciences it was called back then and several others.

My parents really wanted me to become a doctor. That was considered to be the elite profession back then. If you made it into medicine at university then you really were made, if that makes sense. But something inside of me, well … I don’t know, I didn’t want to do medicine.

What do you really know at age 17 about what you’d be good at and what you enjoy and what you really want to spend the rest of your life doing? Nothing really. Fortunately they left it up to me and being a young lad with a sense of adventure, that desire to spread my wings and fly, I chose a career in the military instead.

Now I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked back on that decision in the years since and thank God that I didn’t become a doctor. I hate the sight of blood and being around all those sick people all the time, I just couldn’t imagine it. It’s just not me. I kind of chuckle to myself, and every time we talk about me being a doctor my wife Jacqui ends up shrieking with laughter or rolling her eyes into the back of her head. She knows me better than anyone on the planet and saying that I would make a good doctor would be like you telling me that you could fly to the moon by flapping your arms.

Now, given that I’m a bit of an academic I wouldn’t have had any problem with theory. I’m sure I could cope with all the study and the exams no problem. But my problem would come when you had to stick a needle into someone or cut them open with a knife and poke around inside them, and then put all the pieces back together in the right place and stitch them up again. See my problem with being a doctor isn’t the theory, it’s the practice.

And that’s the way it is for many of us when it comes down to living an extraordinary life. We don’t have any problem whatsoever with the theory. My beautiful daughter, Melissa, in High School decided she was going to be a famous tennis player. The only problem was, whenever she played tennis, well … she just wasn’t one to run after the ball.

There are plenty of us who want to lead an extraordinary life and we dream about it, but you don’t plough a field by turning it over in your mind. People who live extraordinary lives are the ones that realise that the theory isn’t enough. The people who live extraordinary lives are the ones that get out there in the game and give it a crack; the ones who are prepared to sacrifice and fail and get up and dust themselves off and just give it another go. And that’s exactly what Jesus taught us about living an extraordinary life. Have a listen. Matthew Chapter 7 beginning at verse 24:

Anyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who builds his house on a rock. The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and they beat on that house but it didn’t fall because it had been founded on rock.

But everyone who hears these words of mine and doesn’t act on them will be like the foolish man who built his house on the sand. The rain fell, the floods came, the winds blew and beat against the house and it fell and how great was its fall. Now when Jesus had finished saying these things the crowd were astounded at his teaching for He taught them as one having authority and not as their scribes.

Well should they have been amazed. All the religious leaders of their day were teaching waffle and theory that didn’t make people’s lives any better. They were teaching them how to follow all these laws and rules. But when Jesus put all that stuff under the microscope it seemed so irrelevant. Religious teaching of the day wasn’t making things better for the people; in fact it was making their lives worse. Giving them heavy religious rules to carry around, hey who needs that in their lives? But the stuff that Jesus was talking about, sure it was about the very same God as all the other religious leaders were teaching about, but He was teaching stuff that seemed to matter, real life stuff; things that people could take and do and live by that would make their lives better and other people’s lives better.

But Jesus was warning them here. He was saying to them in effect, “You can come along, you can listen, you can be wowed by what you hear, be entertained and be challenged, but if all you do is listen, what good is that going to you? None! Because when push comes to shove, when the going gets tough, it’s all going to come crashing down around your ears. But if you actually do the things I am telling you it will be like building your life on firm foundations. So just don’t sit there and listen to me, do it!” Maybe that’s where Nike got their slogan from.

And here’s the bit that really caps it off for me. When Jesus was done with His teaching, what did He do? Did He go back to His office and get out His text books and get some more theories so He could dish out yet another long, dry, boring sermon; yet another long theory lesson to the masses? Let’s have a listen here to the very next thing that He did straight after this famous Sermon on the Mount. Matthew Chapter 8 beginning at verse 1:

When Jesus came down from that mountain great crowds were following Him. And there was a leper who came to Him and knelt before Him and said, ‘Lord, if you choose you can make me clean.’ He stretched out His hand and said, ‘I do choose, be made clean.’ And immediately the man’s leprosy left him and he was cleansed. So Jesus said to him, ‘See that you don’t say anything to anyone but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded as a testimony to them’.

What was the very next thing that Jesus did after this message on doing instead of just listening He went out and touched a leper. Do you know it was against the law for Him to touch the leper, but He was so moved with compassion that He reached out and touched the leper and healed Him.

I’m not sure if you’ve heard this saying but it’s a great one. "A shepherd should never lose the smell of sheep from his clothing". In other words, we should always be hands on when it comes to living out our faith. We should always be prepared to "do" our faith not just to "believe" our faith. With all my heart I believe in Jesus and it would be the easiest thing in the world for me to be a theoretician; to sit here in a nice safe, clean, cloistered all be it boring little radio studio and just churn out these programs, dish up more theory.

But if there’s one thing that Jesus teaches us it’s that theory isn’t enough. The theory has to work its way out into practice in our lives. The easiest thing in the world is to nod wisely as we hear Jesus’ words today but it’s much harder to go and do them. So let me leave you with this thought.

Theoreticians aren’t the ones who end up living extraordinary lives; it’s the practitioners who do. Who is the greatest sportsman, the one who teaches the players or the one who picks up the ball and runs? Who is the greatest teacher, the one who stays in the classroom or the one who pulls alongside the student on the journey in life? See friend, at some point, if we want to live an extraordinary life, if we want our lives really to count, if we want our lives to have in impact in other people’s lives we have to stop talking about it we have to start doing it, living it, we have to go. For some of us it’s time to stop listening and it’s time to start doing.