Spiritual Responsibility

As I read the March 2009 issue of Chess Life the other day, one of the articles struck me as somewhat profound. The article was about a chess training program that Garry Kasparov led recently. In the event you don't know who that is, he's one of the best (if not the best) chess players of all time. Here's an interesting excerpt:

"In general, appeals to authority don't work on Kasparov, and he constantly emphasizes the need to think for oneself. He doesn't once refer to theory, or any other authority other than his own assessment, analysis, and games. That's not to say he won't refer to other games - he does - but not to make them the final arbiter of truth."

Often in chess, people will study some opening or variation and then use it in their games, expecting everything to work out. People feel comfortable with the opening because their friends say it works out for them in their games, or some because some chess article that it's solid for black. While it's definitely useful to have some background in opening theory, relying exclusively on theory all the time might not be the best idea. Maybe the opening you decided to use is great for attacking styles of play, but you're more comfortable with positional chess. Maybe there are some holes in the opening that your opponent is very familiar with. You can follow opening theory all you want, but if it's not helping you win, what's the point? Just because some of the top chess players prefer a particular opening doesn't mean it will work well for you. Instead of using this stuff blindly, people need to look into it, see why it works, and do some analysis on their own to decide if it's good to use.

This article made me think of how ultimately I am the one who should take responsibility over my own spiritual life. It's really easy to rely on Ronnie, Brandon, Garrett, friends, core, FOCUS, etc. to keep me spiritually healthy. Yet how much time do I devote to my spiritual life apart from all these things? How often do I return to my apartment after FOCUS and do some research of my own about that night's sermon? Do I accept what others say without much question, or do I look into it to determine whether I agree with it? My answer to most of these isn't all that I'd like it to be. I think the attitude of the Bereans described in Acts 17:11 is a good example of what doing this right looks like:

"Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true."

These guys took responsibility over their spiritual lives. They listened to what Paul had to say, while realizing that he was not the "final arbiter of truth." When I have to account for myself after I die, I'd much rather have concrete reasoning behind my actions than to say "My pastor said so."