Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Marginal Gains for God

Dave Brailsford, on cycling success, from the BBC Olympic coverage:

Brailsford has also been expanding on the idea of 'marginal gains':

"The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of an improved it by 1% and put it back together again you will get a significant increase.

"There's fitness and conditioning but there are other things that might seem on the periphery like sleeping in the right position, having the same pillow when you are going away and training in different places, hygiene.

"Do you really know how to clean your hands? Without leaving bits between your fingers? If you do things like that properly, you'll get ill a little bit less. They're tiny things but if you clump them all together it makes a big difference."

Has got me wondering what this looks like in discipleship terms. What are the small changes in small areas that, added together, will make us significantly more Christlike?   There's also more than a trace of Pharisaism here, which at its best is attention to detail in obedience to God (read 'the year of living Biblically' if you're not convinced). Attention to detail is an expression of devotion, an act of worship, a declaration in the small things of the big things that are most important to us.

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