The Race Set Before You

 

When you let someone or something cut in on your spiritual race, you run into a dead end - no prize will meet you at a dead end

Ask my parents to summarize my Chelsea High School Cross Country experience, and they will probably use words like “Shin Splints,” “Stairmaster,” and “Bath Invitational.” You might be asking, “What does Bath Invitational have to do with your experience in high school?” Bath Invitational was a Saturday tournament 58 minutes from my high school home, and I wouldn’t know how long it took to get there from the high school because I slept in that morning and missed the bus. See, the way it was supposed to go was my parents were going to drop me off at the high school so the bus would take me and my team to the event, but when your mind has already been made up about how much you hate running, your body follows suit in agreeing that sleeping in was the far better choice.

 

My parents would likely tease when they use those words because my attitude was always less than pleasant when it came to running. Shin splints was my number one excuse, and I would strategically bring it up to my coach after finding out we were running 8 miles in the humid weather, on dirt roads, nose deep in cow manure smells, and at an impossible pace that messed with your mind when you ran. I swear any sign I am crazy came from running cross country for two years and my coach yelling out his “Pain Is My Friend” mantra to motivate us.

 

Well, I was never motivated in high school.

 

So, I acted like my shin splints were worse than they really were, became closely acquainted with the Stairmaster to get out of running, and slept in through the ungodly early weekend tournaments against superior high schools.

 

Fast forward more than 20 years later, and it’s 2023. I just wrapped up my first 10k with a pace of around 9 minutes and 30 seconds, and I suddenly wish I didn’t use shin splints as an excuse. I also wish I didn’t quit Cross Country after 2 years.

 

This is what happens when you don’t allow yourself to see the good that God is producing through the pain. A lot like my experiences with Cross Country, Paul did the same in Scripture – he used running as a metaphor in our spiritual journey.

 

In Galatia, the church was being pulled in the wrong direction by false teaching – Galatians 1:7 says, “Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the Gospel of Christ.”

 

When it came to the church, they were letting false doctrine cut them off from “running a good race,” according to Paul. This race is the closest metaphor for walking in step with the Truth of the Gospel and not letting shin splints and sleeping in deter you from walking boldly in the direction of the Gospel of Truth.

 

Currently, I am training for the next 10k, and whenever I make the bold decision to not let the next excuse distract me from doing what I set out to do, my mind inevitably drifts to wishing I stuck with cross country and even running after high school concluded. In my late 30s, I discovered I have “Runner’s Knee,” the unscientific way of saying I have arthritic knees. Training now means I have to use arthritis cream for both knees to reduce inflammation. Without slathering Voltaren on each knee before my runs, I can’t make it past ¾ of a mile before Runner’s Knee shows up and I feel the intense pain that makes me have to stop. I don’t regret needing the cream to train, but it does make me sad that I didn’t spend more time entering races and training for them when I didn’t have to use CopperFit compression sleeves, an inhaler for asthma, and the Runner’s Knee ointment.

 

Spiritually, I also find myself drifting to spiritual laziness from time to time, and when I want to start back up, I feel like it sometimes takes more work to get back into it. Don’t underestimate the power of spiritual momentum, because often the words God gives you in yesterday’s devotionals will apply to tomorrow, as often is the case with running and exercising. The times I train by running 4 miles will eventually help me run 6 miles races more smoothly.

 

Don’t let shin splints take you out of the race. We live in a world that is cloaked with distractions that feel better in the moment than running the race. Is it fun to wake up at 6am to prepare for a 3-mile run on the weekend? No, and I don’t think Paul and Jesus said that it would be.

 

They also did not say that’s why we do the running. We don’t run because it is always fun, but we run the race “so that we may obtain [the prize]” (1 Corinthians 9:24). The eternal prize is a life devoted to Christ, a life lived with purpose.

 

With running comes purpose, and when that purpose is directed to Christ, it is a life that follows his will. When the shin splints of life try to steer us away from running with Jesus – staying on the couch instead of getting out there – we let the world prevent us from running towards the eternal prize. We quit running before we even start.

 

The voices you hear that tell you to stop running, postpone it, or question why you do it are not of God. They are designed to derail your devotion to God’s will and direction in your life. Continue running, even when it is hard and the comfort of your couch feels better.

Put Me In God: The Coffee Shop Sign and Being Chosen

The Fix, sitting on the southwest corner of McKellips and Higley in Mesa, Arizona, is a simple shop – more closely resembling a stand because it has no indoor seating. There’s more locations than this one, but the McKellips and Higley one is my spot. There’s not much of a difference between The Fix and the other local joints, but one major difference is it’s farewell sign staring at you on the way out with your recently concocted Cold Brew, Americano, Latte, or Red Bull infused energy drink:

We know you had a choice

Thank you for choosing us.

When my eyes first connected with this catching slogan like a freshman boy spots his high school senior crush at his high school dance, I immediately time-traveled back to the years God placed a recurring thought in my brain that I spent multiple decades finding the words to explain.

 

Growing up, I liked to call myself an observer of others, staring intently at them as they lived their lives. I am too stubborn and protective of my reputation to admit that part of me is strange and creepy, but it likely was. Like a 10-month-old baby, I would stare probably too long as if I was just learning to be human. Anytime I had a moment or two to myself, this profound thought would enter into my mind like the sunset paints the entire sky purple and shades of red and orange – it was an unavoidable, yet beautiful thought. I began to wonder what it would be like for God to decide someone else would fill my body, which meant my personality, hobbies, habits, downtime, and choice of friends, religion, attitude towards school, and daily decision making would belong to someone other than myself. Additionally, I would sit on the sidelines waiting for God to choose me as bodies began getting filled by other identities I had no control over.

 

If this explanation is too depressing, let’s focus on it from another angle:

 

The internet says approximately 250 human babies are born around the globe per minute. This means from the mere standpoint of how long the Earth has been around and will be around compared to the amount of babies being produced by eager and often surprised parents, there’s a pretty good chance I’ll be in charge of one of those bodies in life if 4.3 babies are born per second, and there’s evidence I beat the extraordinarily low odds of me being born. However, the more you learn what God is capable of and can do, especially in a short window of time, the more humbled you become that you were not permanently put in the batter’s box or dugout watching others receive a body to live in on Earth. You were chosen to play in the game.

 

While God had every right to create me to be controlled by someone else (meaning, somebody else makes my friends, someone else makes my decisions and chooses how I spend it, someone chooses my hobbies and how I spend my money, etc.), he didn’t. He chose me to fill my body. The alternate Josh, if he were born, might like hitting the greens with his golf bag, watch Tik Tok videos with a 20 oz cup of Tapioca Boba Tea, while skiing on the water – all things this Josh – the one who beat out all of the other sperm and all of the other possibilities – does not like.

 

Even if God did have other possible Josh’s ready to exist in my physical body, God only followed through with the Josh sitting on the master bedroom bed writing this very paragraph. Better yet, God doesn’t bench me because my batting average is low or I don’t hit well against left-handed pitchers. He keeps me in the game of life as long as He wants to, and I am grateful he chose me.

It's not an accident God chose YOU to be born for this time, for this moment, and for the daily situations you live through. At any moment, God could have decided he didn't need to share his creation with you, and pre-selected you to be on Life's team. But he wanted you. He wanted to draft you into this world, and nothing stopped him. He wants you to live it with purpose because he purposefully chose you!

This is why we worship Him! He chose us when he gave us parents or guardians to raise you, he chose us when he sent his only son to die for our sins, and he is choosing us now to be involved in what he continues to do through you and those around you.

What a blessing!

*See Genesis 1 & Psalm 139:14

Eduard, His Glasses, and God's Perspective

I See, I See, a children’s book I never knew existed until I walked into my 7-month-old’s (at the time) bedroom to read a book to him and there on the nightstand sat this book. I have never heard of this book like Go Dog Go, Frog & Toad, Tikki Tikki Tembo, and Love You Forever. In the top right corner of the book’s cover was a sticker from Bargain Books.

 

“$5.00” it read.

 

The book is about a boy who struggles to accept the fact that he has to get glasses because of his poor vision. When he walks into the store, the saleswoman notices his reluctant attitude towards the specs he needs and whispers in his ear to tell him something that transforms his perspective. From then on, he witnesses that what she said about the glasses was true! He embraces his additional accessory in large part because of what this saleswoman said to him. Every page after the eventful afternoon in the glasses store is another anecdote that there is something beautiful about wearing glasses.

 

This is what the saleswoman says before he puts the glasses on:

“With glasses you will see things that other people don’t. Special things. Just wait and see.”

As the boy’s hesitation turns into trust that these glasses can help people see what others don’t, his optimism also grows little by little. His faith in believing what the woman said paid dividends, and he began to look for opportunities to see the things other don’t.

 

I often feel that way with God. Each day, especially in the classroom, I deal with numerous challenges, setbacks, interruptions, expectations unmet, disgruntled parents, misbehaving students - the list goes on. When I manage to put on the Jesus glasses at any point in the day, it helps me see things I wouldn’t see if I never put them on in the first place.

 

I think God enjoys walking with us in that daily journey. When I submit to wearing the glasses God gives me in the form of faith and trust in him when I see the world his way, it becomes an adventure to see how God will show up through me and reveal his thoughts about a situation like how the previously unseen things revealed themselves to the main character in I See, I See.

 

For example, I have a 5^th grade student, and we will call him Bradley. One particular Thursday, a regular Thursday in the middle of November, Bradley was upset that another student was picking on him about his handwriting. He became so irritated, he belligerently expressed the injustice he felt for being called out the way he was. Important note: Bradley has a history of overreacting to situations by fixating on them and reeling over the fact that he is being unfairly treated – when he is unfairly treated, it makes sense to be frustrated, but from an emotional maturity standpoint, it is a struggle for Bradley to cooperate as a 10-year-old when he is emotionally unsettled. He simply becomes unglued, like a 4-year-old in a 5^th grader’s body. To make matters worse, him and his assigned group were completing a project that was overdo because things came up when we were supposed to finish, so any disruptions in the flow of the group project was reason to become frustrated as a teacher.

 

In other words, the kindergarten level behavior exhibited by 5^th graders was not something I was prepared to confront nor was it anywhere close to what I wanted to deal with at the end of a long day.

 

Without glasses, I would have reacted emotionally and would have drawn incorrect conclusions long before approaching the bickering students to do some fact-checking. In fact, I probably would have done know fact-checking. Bradley would have been wrongly accused because he was the one drawing the most attention to himself and looking at fault by becoming ubhinged about the issue.

 

With glasses on, God helped me take the high road of patience and love. I responded with wisdom – some of it tough love – empathy, and patience. I needed God’s help. There is no way it would have ended well without his guidance on how to discern the situation before bulldozing my way through it.

 

I am grateful because the student in the wrong – or at least what created the snowball of arguments – was not who and what I thought it was. Seeing through the perspective of how God sees things gave me what I needed in time of need: patience, wisdom, and gentleness- the fruits of the Spirit - among others.

 

The point is, it is easy to overreact in the field of education. Expectations are never met by 100% of the students, so the most important tool in the classroom, I would argue, is the glasses God gives me each day. The glasses, when I choose to wear them, gives me the fruits of the Spirit I need to be the image of Jesus the students so desperately need.

 

And “desperately” is a understatement.

 

I wouldn’t make it in the field as long as I have if I ignored those glasses. As Brandon Heath once sang, “Give me Your eyes for just one second
Give me Your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missin'
Give me Your love for humanity
Give me Your arms for the broken-hearted
The ones that are far beyond my reach
Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me Your eyes so I can see”

 

Without the glasses, it is impossible to see what others don’t. It's impossible to see what God wants us to see in others. With them, I can see people the way God does, and isn’t that what we hope to do daily?

 

Give those glasses a try at your workplace, home, or wherever life takes you. They are not just designed for my classroom. It’s free, and God will take you incredible places with them if you make a daily decision to use them. He desires to partner with you, speak through you, and use you to do things you couldn’t do on your own. Look no further than what he did through Noah, Abraham, Moses, Solomon, Esther, Joseph, the disciples, Paul, and so many more.   

 

And at the end of the day, I guess $5.00 is quite the bargain in the picture book world.