Run Your Race Well
Last night I had the opportunity to share with a group of kids in a chapel service. I was a fill-in, as the speaker they had lined up was unable to speak at the last minute. The theme for the message needed to somehow be tied to the Olympics, as that's the overall theme of this week of camp.
Being ready in season and out, huh? So here's a glimpse into what was shared.
Last summer, my family had a reunion in Colorado and we flew into and out of Colorado Springs Airport. As we were leaving, we noticed two girls who were amazing to behold. Their bodies were cut, their muscles were obvious, they had thighs the size of my waist. They were amazing. My son immediately pinned them as Olympic athletes in training. When I first heard that I thought he was crazy until I remembered that there is an Olympic Training Facility in CO Springs! Then we noticed their jackets -US Olympic Team. Well, I guess these really ARE Olympians! We were clearing security with them at the airport and I tried my hardest not to gawk at them.
Being in the presence of these ladies left no doubt in my mind what their lives were focused on, what they're lives were about. Training. Training for the biggest and best display of athleticism ever-the Olympics.
The Apostle Paul borrows from the visual illustration of an athlete in quite a few of his letters. In fact, some of the last words he penned were "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." Finished the race.
In I Corinthians 9:24-27, he uses the illustration of the disciplined athlete in training. He compares how our lives as Christians need to be disciplined and focused, temperate in all things so that we may run to receive the imperishable crown. I wonder what the training regimen is for an Olympic hopeful. What is it like to be that regimented and that disciplined so that you can compete?
So, knowing that we are called to run our individual races, I asked the Lord what keeps me from running well. What keeps me from this disciplined life, from having this focus as I run my race? It didn't take long for the Lord to show me two areas that hinder my race. The first is comparisons. Goodness, I am easily caught up in comparisons! See, I could be running my race and then have someone run up alongside me who's wearing cuter clothes, who has a better running style, hair done, who just looks like they're running better and I will get all caught up in that person that my eyes begin to focus on that and not on the prize. Or, if I don't get caught up in someone better than me, I'll see someone who is not doing as well as I am (in my own perception) and begin to get puffed up about how much better I'm doing. As if their race is dependent on my definition of success?
Either way, comparisons get our eyes off the prize-the crown of righteousness that the Lord will give, and onto people; off of obedience and eternity and onto the people around me.
The Bible is full of people who struggled with comparisons. In John 21, after Jesus restored Peter, He also told Peter how he would die and what is the first thing that Peter asks? "What about him (the Apostle John)?" Quite a few prophets of the Old Testament dealt with this as well-looking at other people and comparing themselves to them. Psalm 73 is a great example of Asaph getting caught up in why the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer. By the end of the Psalm his focus is back where it should be and he declares "it is good for me to draw near to God." He returned his focus back to the Lord and stopped being concerned with other people.
So what was the second reason why I don't focus on the Lord and the race He wants me to run? Well, it probably falls under the same umbrella as getting caught up in comparisons, but the second reason is that I am easily distracted. Daily, I live life in a sin infested world, having to sort through the muck and junk and try to keep on running my race. At times those distractions are pretty severe and cloud my view of the ultimate prize and reason for running.
Jesus, in the parable of the Sower (Matthew 13) gives insight into these distractions and what they do to our walk with the Lord. He tells of a sower sowing the seed of the Word of God and the different types of soil it falls on. When describing the thorny soil, He says that the thorns choke out the growth of the plant. He likens the thorns to the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches coming in and choking out the plant that the Word of God is desiring to produce. We don't like to think of the cares of this world in that light, but God's Word tells us that they're detrimental to our race.
Olympians cannot live a distracted life. They MUST be focused on the goal of competing. Nothing else can get in the way or they will NOT be able to fulfill their training. We can learn much from the disciplined life of an Olympian and apply it to finishing our race well.
So what are we to do about this? I think that all of us, if we're honest are able to say that we do not run as well as we should-that we get caught up in looking at other people and battling the cares of this world that distract us. It's great that God's Word gives us the answer of how to overcome! Our very own training plan. Woot!
The Apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 3:12-15 -Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Press on. Repent of the distractions and the concerns for comparisons and press on. Leave that lifestyle in the dust and press on. And when you fall again, repent, get back up again and press on.
Olympic athletes understand this. If you asked any of them how many races they've lost, how many difficulties they have had to overcome and leave behind them, most of the athletes would tell you that they have not had an easy life. That they have lost many races, that their training has gotten out of whack at times, that they have experienced difficulties AND YET they have had to CHOOSE to press on.
There is much we can learn from the life of a disciplined athlete. Training is hard. The Christian life is hard. Running is exhausting, and the race of faith can be as well. Let's determine to press on and when we come to the end, may we be able to declare with Paul "I have finished my race".
Being ready in season and out, huh? So here's a glimpse into what was shared.
Last summer, my family had a reunion in Colorado and we flew into and out of Colorado Springs Airport. As we were leaving, we noticed two girls who were amazing to behold. Their bodies were cut, their muscles were obvious, they had thighs the size of my waist. They were amazing. My son immediately pinned them as Olympic athletes in training. When I first heard that I thought he was crazy until I remembered that there is an Olympic Training Facility in CO Springs! Then we noticed their jackets -US Olympic Team. Well, I guess these really ARE Olympians! We were clearing security with them at the airport and I tried my hardest not to gawk at them.
Being in the presence of these ladies left no doubt in my mind what their lives were focused on, what they're lives were about. Training. Training for the biggest and best display of athleticism ever-the Olympics.
The Apostle Paul borrows from the visual illustration of an athlete in quite a few of his letters. In fact, some of the last words he penned were "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." Finished the race.
In I Corinthians 9:24-27, he uses the illustration of the disciplined athlete in training. He compares how our lives as Christians need to be disciplined and focused, temperate in all things so that we may run to receive the imperishable crown. I wonder what the training regimen is for an Olympic hopeful. What is it like to be that regimented and that disciplined so that you can compete?
So, knowing that we are called to run our individual races, I asked the Lord what keeps me from running well. What keeps me from this disciplined life, from having this focus as I run my race? It didn't take long for the Lord to show me two areas that hinder my race. The first is comparisons. Goodness, I am easily caught up in comparisons! See, I could be running my race and then have someone run up alongside me who's wearing cuter clothes, who has a better running style, hair done, who just looks like they're running better and I will get all caught up in that person that my eyes begin to focus on that and not on the prize. Or, if I don't get caught up in someone better than me, I'll see someone who is not doing as well as I am (in my own perception) and begin to get puffed up about how much better I'm doing. As if their race is dependent on my definition of success?
Either way, comparisons get our eyes off the prize-the crown of righteousness that the Lord will give, and onto people; off of obedience and eternity and onto the people around me.
The Bible is full of people who struggled with comparisons. In John 21, after Jesus restored Peter, He also told Peter how he would die and what is the first thing that Peter asks? "What about him (the Apostle John)?" Quite a few prophets of the Old Testament dealt with this as well-looking at other people and comparing themselves to them. Psalm 73 is a great example of Asaph getting caught up in why the wicked prosper and the righteous suffer. By the end of the Psalm his focus is back where it should be and he declares "it is good for me to draw near to God." He returned his focus back to the Lord and stopped being concerned with other people.
So what was the second reason why I don't focus on the Lord and the race He wants me to run? Well, it probably falls under the same umbrella as getting caught up in comparisons, but the second reason is that I am easily distracted. Daily, I live life in a sin infested world, having to sort through the muck and junk and try to keep on running my race. At times those distractions are pretty severe and cloud my view of the ultimate prize and reason for running.
Jesus, in the parable of the Sower (Matthew 13) gives insight into these distractions and what they do to our walk with the Lord. He tells of a sower sowing the seed of the Word of God and the different types of soil it falls on. When describing the thorny soil, He says that the thorns choke out the growth of the plant. He likens the thorns to the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches coming in and choking out the plant that the Word of God is desiring to produce. We don't like to think of the cares of this world in that light, but God's Word tells us that they're detrimental to our race.
Olympians cannot live a distracted life. They MUST be focused on the goal of competing. Nothing else can get in the way or they will NOT be able to fulfill their training. We can learn much from the disciplined life of an Olympian and apply it to finishing our race well.
So what are we to do about this? I think that all of us, if we're honest are able to say that we do not run as well as we should-that we get caught up in looking at other people and battling the cares of this world that distract us. It's great that God's Word gives us the answer of how to overcome! Our very own training plan. Woot!
The Apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 3:12-15 -Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Press on. Repent of the distractions and the concerns for comparisons and press on. Leave that lifestyle in the dust and press on. And when you fall again, repent, get back up again and press on.
Olympic athletes understand this. If you asked any of them how many races they've lost, how many difficulties they have had to overcome and leave behind them, most of the athletes would tell you that they have not had an easy life. That they have lost many races, that their training has gotten out of whack at times, that they have experienced difficulties AND YET they have had to CHOOSE to press on.
There is much we can learn from the life of a disciplined athlete. Training is hard. The Christian life is hard. Running is exhausting, and the race of faith can be as well. Let's determine to press on and when we come to the end, may we be able to declare with Paul "I have finished my race".