My wife recently completed what I feel is an amazing accomplishment. Just over a week ago she ran a 1/2 marathon. That's 13.1 MILES! I am very proud of her while at the same time feeling like a bit of a wimp myself. I have always been fairly athletic and have participated in some sort of sport and/or physical activity on a pretty regular basis most of my life, but running has never been my thing. I am much more of a sprinter (not a fast sprinter mind you) than a long distance guy. After all, baseball, football and basketball (the sports I primarily play) require relatively short bursts of running and not long distances.
I thought about my wife's accomplishment versus my lack of long distance running as I reviewed some notes that I had written on Hebrews chapter 12. If you are unfamiliar with that chapter here is verse 1 from the NIV; "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us RUN WITH PERSEVERANCE the race marked out for us." (emphasis added) The ESV uses the word endurance instead of perseverance and both are required to run a long race but are not as important in a sprint. As I read this passage a couple of weeks ago and reviewed my notes on it last week, I saw how my spiritual life and physical life are pretty similar. In fact, I think many of us fail to see our relationship with Jesus as a marathon. I think intellectually we understand that it is, but, as we live our lives we want it to be much more like a sprint. We want answers NOW. We want the fruit (the benefit) of our hard work NOW. We want the change or transformation in our lives or in the world around us to happen NOW.
The reality is that it often takes many lessons or walking through something for awhile before we are changed or transformed by it. We often times have to seek God and wait patiently for His answers in His timing. If you are a Christ follower, you are in a process of becoming more and more like Him. Sometimes progress happens quickly and sometimes it happens more gradually. Either way, we need to remember that we are not in a sprint, we need to strengthen ourselves spiritually by spending time in the Word, by spending time talking to our Father, by allowing Him to work in us and through us so we can build up our endurance and complete the race that He has marked out for us.
When training for her 1/2 marathon, if my wife had only worked on her sprinting, she would not have been able to finish the race, she wouldn't have been able to get up the hill that was at the end of the course. Similarly, if we only get little bits of God (i.e. attend church Sunday but that's it) we will not be able to withstand the trials, the "hills" that we come across. Where are you at with God right now? Are you watching others run the race? Are you running sprints but are unable to run the distance? Or, are you enduring, persevering and working to finish the race?
I thought about my wife's accomplishment versus my lack of long distance running as I reviewed some notes that I had written on Hebrews chapter 12. If you are unfamiliar with that chapter here is verse 1 from the NIV; "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us RUN WITH PERSEVERANCE the race marked out for us." (emphasis added) The ESV uses the word endurance instead of perseverance and both are required to run a long race but are not as important in a sprint. As I read this passage a couple of weeks ago and reviewed my notes on it last week, I saw how my spiritual life and physical life are pretty similar. In fact, I think many of us fail to see our relationship with Jesus as a marathon. I think intellectually we understand that it is, but, as we live our lives we want it to be much more like a sprint. We want answers NOW. We want the fruit (the benefit) of our hard work NOW. We want the change or transformation in our lives or in the world around us to happen NOW.
The reality is that it often takes many lessons or walking through something for awhile before we are changed or transformed by it. We often times have to seek God and wait patiently for His answers in His timing. If you are a Christ follower, you are in a process of becoming more and more like Him. Sometimes progress happens quickly and sometimes it happens more gradually. Either way, we need to remember that we are not in a sprint, we need to strengthen ourselves spiritually by spending time in the Word, by spending time talking to our Father, by allowing Him to work in us and through us so we can build up our endurance and complete the race that He has marked out for us.
When training for her 1/2 marathon, if my wife had only worked on her sprinting, she would not have been able to finish the race, she wouldn't have been able to get up the hill that was at the end of the course. Similarly, if we only get little bits of God (i.e. attend church Sunday but that's it) we will not be able to withstand the trials, the "hills" that we come across. Where are you at with God right now? Are you watching others run the race? Are you running sprints but are unable to run the distance? Or, are you enduring, persevering and working to finish the race?
I like that analogy. Lately I have been feeling convicted that I'm not ready to "persevere" with Christ. Like the running example, putting in the work to be ready for a specific day doesn't cover a future of slackeryness. I used to be way more prepared to love Him and answer people, but right now I am not proud to say I'm feeling behind in the training schedule.
ReplyDeleteI want to be on God's "ready to go" list!
So thanks for the post!