But without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to Him. For whoever would come near to God must [necessarily] believe that God exists and that He is the rewarder of those who earnestly and diligently seek Him [out]. – Hebrews 11:6, Amplified Bible (AMP)

Some years ago I was in the audience when professional speaker and executive speech coach Patricia Fripp made the following statement:

Every time someone calls me an overnight success, I tell them, “It took me ten years to become an overnight success!”

She went on to say that, behind the scenes, she worked long, hard, and diligently to master the art of public speaking.

Since that time, I’ve read or heard from a variety of sources that it takes 10,000 hours of experience, spread out over +/- 10 years, to become an expert in anything. In researching the topic, I have run across many commentators that agree with the 10,000-hour time frame. I have run across just about as many that disagree with the 10,000-hour time frame. Despite the dispute over the “10,000 hours,” there is one thing all parties agree on: large amounts of deliberate practice are what set apart experts from average people.

Aubrey Daniels, in Expert Performance: Apologies to Dr. Ericsson, But it is Not 10,000 Hours of Deliberate Practice, articulated “deliberate practice” this way:

Practice, yes; hours of practice, no. While there is a high correlation between hours of practice and activity during practice, it is not perfect…For a simple example, consider the activity of two basketball players practicing free throws for one hour. Player A shoots 200 practice shots, Player B shoots 50. The Player B retrieves his own shots, dribbles leisurely and takes several breaks to talk to friends. Player A has a colleague who retrieves the ball after each attempt. The colleague keeps a record of shots made. If the shot is missed the colleague records whether the miss was short, long, left or right and the shooter reviews the results after every 10 minutes of practice. To characterize their hour of practice as equal would hardly be accurate. Assuming this is typical of their practice routine and they are equally skilled at the start, which would you predict would be the better shooter after only 100 hours of practice?

Player A, of course. Deliberate practice is not just repetition. It is repetition coupled with the will and effort to eliminate the things that hinder success and to strengthen the things that produce success.

So what does this have to do with the Christian faith? I wonder how many “expert” Christians there are in the world right now. I wonder how many Christians spend 10,000 minutes – let alone 10,000 hours – deliberately practicing their faith. How many Christians lazily coast through life, praying that God won’t ask them to do anything that would take them out of their comfort zone? In contrast, how many Christians risk losing their comfort, how many risk persecution, and how many risk their riches in order to follow God’s seemingly insane instructions, as Abraham did? It is through taking steps of faith that we can learn how precious God’s promises are, how loving His character is, and how miraculous of a provider He can be. But if we don’t take those steps of faith, we won’t give God the opportunity to transform our biblical head knowledge into the heart understanding that comes only through the risky experience of totally trusting Him to fulfill His promises.

God wants to show us the depths of His character, but He won’t do so until we show Him the depths of our faith. To become an expert Christian, we can’t just study the Bible’s promises; we must give God the chance to apply them to our lives. At times, we’ll fail to trust. Other times, we’ll succeed. Mark down the difference between those times when you trust and those times when you don’t. Eliminate those things that cause you to fail and strengthen those things that cause you to trust. If you do, you’ll see your understanding of God grow, and before long, you’ll be one of those few expert Christians who actually know what it’s like to walk with God.