When the little kids start the race, there is joy on their faces. They're young and it's all fresh.
When the big kids start the race, faces are grim. They are ready to pour it all out. They know it's going to burn.
Not that they shy from the race because of that. I find with the high school age boys that I coach in lacrosse, they want to pour it out. The grim aspect is almost attractive. They burn to do something great - to take on some great endeavor. It's what draws people to run marathons and to test themselves in efforts like those offered by Outward Bound.
Now, imagine Jesus as He started his race. Imagine the joy He must have felt with His first miracle -- turning water to wine to honor His Father and on behalf of His mother at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. Imagine Him a little like those little kids in their first race. Exhilarated. Even smiling.
It wouldn't always be like that. In fact, we find Isaiah says of Jesus, He would be a man of sorrows. And anyone that has ever gone deep into their reserves, deep in a race has a little understanding of what Isaiah means. It's why, at the end of a race, a runner is often tempted to just sit down on the nearest curb and have a good cry rather than exult.
But for now, imagine Him at the outset - the pain at the end is out there looming, but it's still low on the horizon. For the moment, there is the exultation of sensing He's begun the run He was born to make. As Eric Liddell said in Chariots of Fire, "I feel His pleasure."
Video of Eric Liddell:
http://danziebarth.blogspot.com/2008/01/and-when-i-run-i-feel-his-pleasure.html
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Sunday, March 15, 2009
the joy of the race
I attended field day at my daughters' school last Friday. and I got to watch countless kids race the 50 yard dash.
Hebrews 12 tells us to run with endurance the race marked out for us by fixing our eyes on the one that ran it before us (Christ) who for the sake of joy that waited for Him at the finish, despite the pain.
Well, you watch kids and you see the joy of racing.
Hebrews 12 tells us to run with endurance the race marked out for us by fixing our eyes on the one that ran it before us (Christ) who for the sake of joy that waited for Him at the finish, despite the pain.
Well, you watch kids and you see the joy of racing.
When the race begins, two or three of them get silly grins on their faces. A few others get this very determined look that suggests some sort of fire burning inside them. Most of them at one time or another look down at their own feet wondering if they're fast. And fast or slow, they all churn to the finish line. But three quarters of the way there, the legs and lungs start burning and these little guys have to trudge on to reach the finish. From start to finish, along the entire stretch, parents, teachers, administrators and kids from other grades (a great cloud of witnesses) cheer them on.
You realize that God put something in the heart of each of these kids to run the race. That for the sake of whatever joy awaited them on the other side of that finish line, they'd endure the burn in the lungs and legs. On a micro-scale - like Jesus did.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
on being a daily runner and Christian
I find that I feel a lot more like a runner when I try to run every day.
For years, I’ve subscribed to the idea that you take a day off between your runs. But recently, while coming off the flu and an enforced hiatus from my roadwork, I read a book by Haruki Murakami (http://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Talk-About-When-Running/dp/1846552206). In that book, he talks about running daily and it struck a chord with me.
So I thought I’d try it. I started slow and short (about 11 minutes a mile and about 3 miles per run per day). After about four of these, I found I wasn’t overly fatigued. My times were improving. Plus I found that my legs and hips were tightening up in a good way. Like I was tightening the strings on an old baseball glove or tuning up an old banjo. Even my lower back and abs were ‘tautening up.’
For now, the daily runs are my approach. They’ve been a pleasant surprise. Before this, I’d scheduled one and two day breaks into my running schedule because my bones and joints are older now (I just turned 50). But I didn’t see the weight loss I’d sought and my body hadn’t tautened up – and I didn’t really feel like a runner. But going daily changes that.
I think there’s a parallel in this with trying to be a “Christian.” I think it's what Josh Christiansen (Associate Pastor at Orlando Community Church http://www.orlandocommunitychurch.org/index.htm) hit on when he coined the term, "daily Christian."
If you’re going to see the strings of your spiritual life "tautened," being a Christian, it has to be more than a Sunday morning thing. Like the difference between reading my Bible and praying daily versus sporadically. And I know that there are other places where being a daily Christian would show too.
Like running daily, it becomes part of what I am. It seeps into my thoughts and my conversation. And like the changes to my waistline and musculature, I find my life slowly tightening up in a good way.
For years, I’ve subscribed to the idea that you take a day off between your runs. But recently, while coming off the flu and an enforced hiatus from my roadwork, I read a book by Haruki Murakami (http://www.amazon.co.uk/What-Talk-About-When-Running/dp/1846552206). In that book, he talks about running daily and it struck a chord with me.
So I thought I’d try it. I started slow and short (about 11 minutes a mile and about 3 miles per run per day). After about four of these, I found I wasn’t overly fatigued. My times were improving. Plus I found that my legs and hips were tightening up in a good way. Like I was tightening the strings on an old baseball glove or tuning up an old banjo. Even my lower back and abs were ‘tautening up.’
For now, the daily runs are my approach. They’ve been a pleasant surprise. Before this, I’d scheduled one and two day breaks into my running schedule because my bones and joints are older now (I just turned 50). But I didn’t see the weight loss I’d sought and my body hadn’t tautened up – and I didn’t really feel like a runner. But going daily changes that.
I think there’s a parallel in this with trying to be a “Christian.” I think it's what Josh Christiansen (Associate Pastor at Orlando Community Church http://www.orlandocommunitychurch.org/index.htm) hit on when he coined the term, "daily Christian."
If you’re going to see the strings of your spiritual life "tautened," being a Christian, it has to be more than a Sunday morning thing. Like the difference between reading my Bible and praying daily versus sporadically. And I know that there are other places where being a daily Christian would show too.
Like running daily, it becomes part of what I am. It seeps into my thoughts and my conversation. And like the changes to my waistline and musculature, I find my life slowly tightening up in a good way.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
on training
My nephew recently went to Tampa and ran the Gasparilla 15K with his dad. “Nine miles,” I said, impressed. “Had you been training to run that distance?”
“No,” he said. “My dad called me the day before and said come run this with me. So I did.”
He’d never run nine miles in his life, and he hadn’t done any running recently.
All things considered, he’d done really well – ran 10 minute miles and beat his dad to the finish by 6 seconds. But think how he might have done if he’d trained (and how much better he’d have felt the next day).
My nephew showed, if you want to race at your best, you’ve got to train. Hebrews exorts us to run the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on the One who perfected it. To do that well, we need to train – to log the daily miles in which we push ourselves over and over so that on race day, we’re primed and ready to go.
How do we prime ourselves for race day in following Jeses? There are plenty of ways, but I’d guess few are better than daily time reading the bible and praying. They are a little like the training runs we make getting ready to race. In those training runs, we repeatedly discipline ourselves, exploring – and shoring up - our weaknesses. In the process we grow stronger.
A solid time of reading and prayer does something similar. It’s an act of discipline in which we learn what God says via the Bible. We consider our weaknesses and grow stronger in our knowledge of Him and ourselves.
“No,” he said. “My dad called me the day before and said come run this with me. So I did.”
He’d never run nine miles in his life, and he hadn’t done any running recently.
All things considered, he’d done really well – ran 10 minute miles and beat his dad to the finish by 6 seconds. But think how he might have done if he’d trained (and how much better he’d have felt the next day).
My nephew showed, if you want to race at your best, you’ve got to train. Hebrews exorts us to run the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on the One who perfected it. To do that well, we need to train – to log the daily miles in which we push ourselves over and over so that on race day, we’re primed and ready to go.
How do we prime ourselves for race day in following Jeses? There are plenty of ways, but I’d guess few are better than daily time reading the bible and praying. They are a little like the training runs we make getting ready to race. In those training runs, we repeatedly discipline ourselves, exploring – and shoring up - our weaknesses. In the process we grow stronger.
A solid time of reading and prayer does something similar. It’s an act of discipline in which we learn what God says via the Bible. We consider our weaknesses and grow stronger in our knowledge of Him and ourselves.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)