Muscle Memory

Keep the words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. – Deuteronomy 6:6-7 (NRSV) 

Teenage me had three passions: martial arts, theater, God. In that order. 

I spent way more hours watching Kung Fu, ninja movies and practicing martial arts than on the stage or in prayer. 

Such as The Karate Kid where Mr. Miyagi agrees to train sixteen-year-old Daniel in karate. He makes Daniel wax a few dozen cars: wax on, wax off. He makes him paint a wooden fence: up, down, up, down. Daniel complains. It seems a waste of time, or worse, exploitation. 

Mr. Miyagi responds with a barrage of punches. Daniel’s body moves instinctively. Wax on. Wax off. Up, down. His muscles remember. What felt like meaningless labor turned out to be training. Forty-five movie minutes later, Daniel is defeating black belts in tournaments. 

It took me a bit longer. Five years of the same stances, strikes, and combat sequences repeated until I didn’t have to think about them.  

Faith is like that. Prayers mumbled, psalms chanted, and hymns sung distractedly on Sundays can feel like waxing cars. Meanwhile the words go deeper than we know. 

Anyone who has visited a memory care unit has seen it. Residents who no longer recognize family hear the first words of the Lord’s Prayer, and their lips move. The heart and body remember. 

At home and away, lying down and rising, we practice our moves so that when everything else is stripped away, divine love remains. 

Prayer
Write your words so deeply in us that when we forget everything else, we still remember You.

About the Author
Matt Laney is Co-Pastor of Virginia Highland Church UCC in Atlanta, GA. If you enjoy Matt’s writing, check out his new book, The Second Arrow from MacMillan.