Muscle Memory
How many of you have written the wrong year on a check or form so far this year? Maybe I should have asked how many times you have done it. Most of us have a hard time putting the correct date for at least the first two or three weeks, if not the first two or three months. I’m sure that two at the end of 2022 has had to be doctored a few thousand times to make a 3 since the stroke of midnight that started the New Year.
In some fields they would call that muscle memory. It works in our favor for many things that we do. You don’t want an ER nurse or doctor trying to remember how to use certain equipment when your life is on the line. I shot a pistol a couple of weeks ago and I certainly hope that police officers and military personnel are much faster and smoother at reloading and handling it than I was. I could pretty rapidly load, unload, and problem solve a long rifle, but pistols are pretty new to me. I don’t have the hours upon hours of handling and shooting them that those who defend and protect us have from practicing and training.
It takes thousands of repetitions with a task to really become an expert. I’m glad there were experts on the scene when Damar Hamlin hit the turf on Monday Night Football in cardiac arrest. Their quick actions of knowing CPR and being able to use a defibrillator perhaps saved his life. It was clearly not their first time using it. The outcome was much greater as a result.
Of course, we can’t forget the prayer heard ‘round the world. The following day Dan Orlovsky, on live ESPN television, tells everyone he is going to say a prayer and say it loudly for the world to hear. He had been hearing people talk about “thoughts and prayers,” but felt the urge to actually do it for the world to hear. Maybe he is just a great wordsmith, but it seemed to me that the way he prayed indicated that it was not his first time using that great source of communication that God’s people have been using since the beginning of time. There seemed to me to be some “muscle memory” when it came to his conversation with the Lord.
What about you? Are you well equipped to go to God in prayer because you have already done it over and over again? Is there muscle memory and impressive recall when it comes to Scripture and the teachings of Jesus? Do your hands and feet immediately react to the needs of others because you have trained them to respond in situations that call for love and service?
I hope the answer is yes. If so, keep on training your spiritual brain to talk to God, listen to Him, and serve those around you. If not, make it your goal to be so trained when the clock strikes midnight on 2024. You have a year, but it will be accomplished by simply doing it “Day by Day.”
Ben