Max

I met him on a shuttle van in route from Atlanta, Georgia to Chattanooga, Tennessee. No ordinary charmer, the two hour journey found me seat-partners to Master Sergent Riden, a 20-odd year military man, a southern gentleman and a definite inheritor of the talent of WOO. He had it mastered to an art. A rare combination of mellowed confidence interspersed with endearing diffidence.
Designed to send me packing to the nearest recruitment office-out spun a fascinating array of stories and facts, from the personal pull of charisma to the usual financial and travel perks. At one point, out came a magazine prop that had him featured as a top, actually number one to be exact, pick within a magazine picture gallery trumping specimens of muscular military fitness. Suffice it to say that the man was a monument to washboard abs if there every was one.
Abbs aside, what has remind burned in my mind, was the telling of his personal motto. His mantra of sorts. The one he shares with new recruits along with the disclaimer that he's no 'pencil pusher': meaning there is going to be no sliding in by the skin of your teeth with this guy. This personal motto was printed on his stationary, his letterhead, and I could sense, his being.

Never train to Pass,
Always train to Max

He built a context than expanded. That way the military training system works, according to MSG Riden, is that the recruits have certain quotas with a pass and a max zone. If one has the repeated pattern of only training to just pass, then it stands that on a 'bad' day, i.e. disagreement with a girlfriend or wife (his example) or other wise mentally disconcerted or physically at odds, then you will score at lower than the 'passing' mark-and so fail. If on the other hand one strives to max out the max (is that possible?), then on a 'bad' day one will still perform way beyond just passing--and so succeed.
The implications of such an attitude and practice weren't fleshed out till days latter. And it was contrary to the original though pattern.
An etching of 'running the race with patience' and the Education quote: "Higher than the highest human thought can reach in God's ideal for His children. Godliness-godlikness-is the goal to be reached." conjoined to narrate a new idea. It would be easy to take a military stance on a works oriented max-out. But actually God-likeness is a living definition of God. And God is Love, I John 4:16. A strong, tough, working love, yes, but not the shallow, selfishly lazy, but sometimes flashy kind of love. Running the track of this kind of love requires that patience Paul described. It requires the determination to train to Max-It-Out. The fullness of living with this model of Maxing out love is really revolutionizing my life. Max love by making choices that reflect love in the way I treat myself and others. Max love and so succeed at love.
Yes, I gained a new inspiration to 'train' myself to push my supposed limits of physical and mental endurance (which was MSG Rider original point and living illustration) but most importantly to me. I will allow God to show me how to stretch my supposed limitations in Maxing out Love.