Keeping the Faith - Runner's Terms

Running is an interesting hobby. It takes time to appreciate, and most of the time, it's like a movie without a happy ending. Why do most of us run? To be happy and healthy. But, when you press play on your iPod, do your stretches, and prepare your 4-mile run, it's not the most exciting feeling. For the most part, you just want the end result. Once you begin running, time halts. Every second feels like an eternity, and every muscle in your body reminds you that bedtime is better than any physical activity you try to perform. You envision an effortless prance through the field, but you feel torment. You dream dreams of bounding with the antelopes along the lush hills of Ireland, but you are constantly awoken by the harsh realities of being out of shape. 

Often, running and life go hand-in-hand. Just like running, life can sometimes be one twisted ankle after another. Eventually, we throw our hands up and yell back, "Why me?!" When we watch the Hollywood movies and look at Facebook pictures of our friends at parties, we envision that perfect society we've created in our head. No trickery, no harsh realities. Unfortunately, what we wish for does not come true.

As life continues taking its course, it continues taking a toll on our lives. We begin to lose heart, and just like running in a race, we begin to feel discouraged. We feel dehydrated, hurt, and our legs give out. Quitting never sounded better. All of the cliche "You can do it!" posters only mock your chances of making it.

Well, you do have your reasons. You do have your excuses. And boy, are they good. They could almost convince anyone that your moping, whining, and complaining is perfectly acceptable. According to Scripture, though, no reasons or excuses are worth responding that way: "Do everything without grumbling or complaining, so that you may become blameless and pure" (Philippians 2:14-15). And, according to Philippians, this means in all circumstances. It does not say, "Do certain things without grumbling or complaining." It says everything.

So, now that we understand when it is acceptable to complain, whine, and moan, we should look at Paul's response to our desire to quit running the race of life:

Galatians 5:7-8: "You were running a good race. Who cut in on you to keep you from obeying the truth? That kind of persuasion does not come from the one who calls you (God)."

The Galatians - the people Paul was speaking to at the time - were believers in God and the Law, but began being led astray. They were runners who were quitting on their faith. Circumstances caused them to throw in the towel. Paul confronts them and asks, "What reasons do you have to quit? You were doing well!"

We often look at circumstances around us and think there are enough adequate reasons to stop running, unaware of how well we were actually doing. While it is crucial to attend to your feelings and understand where they come from, we have to be careful so as not to remove ourselves from the race. Hebrews 12:1-2 says, "...let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith (NLT)." So, with Jesus as our Usain Bolt of life-runners, we can now follow his lead because he was a "champion" during his time on Earth. Jesus demonstrated what a Christ-like life should look like as a human being with feelings, skin, bones, and a soul.

So how can we "run with endurance the race God has set before us"? First, we can "Set our mind on things above, not on earthly things" (Colossians 3:2). Additionally, we can "Be strong in the Lord and his mighty power. Put on the full amour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes" (Ephesians 6:10-11). Finally, we can "Rejoice always, pray continually, (and) give thanks in all circumstances..." (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 - also Philippians 4:6). There is nothing like combating the world's troubles with praise, thanksgiving, and genuine prayer to our Lord.

As a cross-country runner growing up, the phrase heard most often was, "Pace yourself." In running terms, that meant to save the sprint for the last .1-.2 miles left. The last leg was meant to be an all-out sprint because it was an opportunity to pass a lot of other runners who did not pace themselves very well. As a result, if the last tenth of a mile were run correctly, the runner would usually climb three to four spots in the ranks because of this all-out sprint. Despite feeling nauseous and woozy at the end of the race, there was satisfaction in knowing you gave it your all; you held nothing back. When Paul wrote to the man he was mentoring, Timothy, he said, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:7).

When you are ready to be with God in Heaven; when your time comes to a close, do you want the assurance of knowing that you were ready to meet with him for eternity?  Do you feel you could say that today? No matter what happens in this lifetime, you know with 100% assurance that you did not waver in your faith? Do you want the confidence of knowing that you fought the good fight?

God is Love...No really, He is.

When you look back on your life and focus on when you were a baby, what memories come to mind? Probably no memories come to mind because your brain was still developing at that age, so memories were hard to come by when you were pooping in diapers and constantly screaming for attention (in oh so many ways).

Now, could you dare think about what God thought of you? Quite a thought, right? When you were formed in the womb and even popped out to see the world for the first time, God loved you with an immense passion so deep, you will never, ever, be able to fathom the depth of that love.

Here's the kicker: when you were a baby, all you did was poop in your diaper, scream for attention (at unrealistic hours), and sleep your life away. You were probably cranky most of the time and would try to find multiple ways to move your tongue around your mouth (even if that meant drooling in the process). You were economically and socially useless; you couldn't make a living by yourself, you could not contribute your intelligence in anyway or help someone in need. Useless. Cute, but useless.

Yet God still loved you with a burning passion that cannot be taken away by anything.

And He still does. Despite who you've become and who you plan to be, he still loves you.

And He always will.

No man, machine, worldwide war, hate crime, demon possession, sin, cause-and-effect, reminder of who we are, president, commanding officer, gender, AA group, therapist, judge, police officer, boss, priest, pope, king, queen, Secretary of Defense, actor/actress, comedian, entertainer, NBA star, NFL star, coach, teacher, or pilot is going to have the persuasive skills to tell God whether He should stop loving, lay off on the love a bit, or love more. He already loves us more than we can handle, and since he is the King of everything, he can decide how much he loves us.

And, boy, does he love us.

Romans 8:38-39 says all you need to know about God's furious, unstoppable love.

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

There is only one thing that can take away his love - God. And there is no way that God is going to take away his love for us. Why? Because God is Love. 1 John 4:8 says, "Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love."

Take, for example, us. We are human. We are defined as humans. God is defined by so many things, and one of them is love. If God is love, he does not exist outside of love. Let me repeat: HE DOES NOT EXIST OUTSIDE OF LOVE. This is because he is love. As a human, Justin Timberlake cannot decide he is going to stop being a human and turn into something else. He is a human. God is love. God is the perfect representation of love, and nothing will take that away.

Right when you think God is done, there is more love to give. David wrote in Psalm 139:14: "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made." While it can be understood that God wonderfully made us, it can be rather difficult to comprehend him "fearfully" making us. According to savedhealed.com, "fearfully" does not mean that God fears us, rather in Hebrew it means "with great reverence and heart-felt interest and respect." 

In other words, God made us so delicately out of respect for what we needed to be that he spent valuable time crafting us to be formed in his image. He is so deeply interested in our thoughts, actions, and ideas because he is love and he loves us!

So, let's take a step backwards. If God is love (1 John 4:8) and nothing in all creation can separate his love (Romans 8:38-39), then that means the essence of God is greater than life, death, angels, demons, present, future, all powers, heights, depths, and everything in creation. He has authority over all things, so if he loves you with utmost care and reverence, then he has authority over that perfect love for you and me.

Unfortunately, our infancy does not capture the height and depth of God's love for us. Fortunately, we do not need God to prove it because he already has. "But God demonstrates his own love for us in this," declares Romans 5:8, "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us."

Through a sacrifice of God's only son, he demonstrated who he is so that we may have everlasting peace and prosperity.

And friends, nothing can take this love away. So bask in it! Love him in return because He, in very nature, is love! If you have difficulty loving yourself, or you do not believe that God could love a sinner like you, remember that he is the definition of love! 

It's not as if God is waiting for you to update him on the sinner you are so he can say, "Oh, yeah, I should probably stop loving you." God is perfect in the way he loves you, so despite your sin nature, God still loves you. 

Will you reciprocate that love? Will you respond by loving him despite your ugly sin? He wants and yearns for you to love in return. He is a jealous God who waits for you to return his love. You are his gift, and the love you give is a reminder that you are fearfully and wonderfully made to love like him!

Moral? Don't test God's love. No one and nothing can stop it. There is nothing you can do with this love but ignore it or accept it. 

But you cannot take it away.

Identity Crisis

We all put our identity in something: possessions, position, and people. As a result, our identifiers control our temperature. We get heated when we lose something, our authority is in question, or we disagree with a loved one. Like a roller coaster, our days have their ups and downs. We often do not see them coming, but once our ups become downs, we let our worst become evident.

We have created a love relationship with the world around us, glorifying the good it brings us, and being corrupted by its tempting beauty. At night, we go to bed with it, and in the morning, it leaves us unsatisfied. The result? Destruction of our spiritual, emotional, and even physical well-being.

Once sin plagued this world, Satan used deceit, lies, and evil to enslave God's Image to his purpose: total annihilation of any possible love relationship with the Almighty God. One of his greatest weapons is convincing us to be content with the world. Like a one-night-stand, we try to get what we want quickly, and when the night is over, we go on seeking another form of happiness that is as fleeting as the air we breathe.

As we go from one hotel room to another, sin slowly devours us; unrealistic comparisons, lust, greed, coveting, uncontrollable temper, self-pity, lying, malice, the list goes on. We become the monster we promised we would never become. If we were to be interviewed with the question, "Do you wish to inflict harm on anyone?" most of us would consciously say "No." Unfortunately, when worldly expectations are not met, we lose control and live a destructive lifestyle. We unconsciously change our answer to "Yes."

If we keep these things from becoming our identity, they are good things to have. When we construct a golden calf (Exodus 32) in honor of the world, we become a slave to it. We befriend the world and bow down to its commands. The world tells us, and we do it.

We have become adulterous people, sleeping with the world and shunning the love that God offers us all the time. James 4:1-4: "What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God...You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God."

So, we become enemies of God when we put our trust, faith, and loyalty into the world. How is this encouraging? How is this uplifting? None of this is, but what God offers is truly the greatest gift we can receive. When we read James 4:4, it can be easy to take pity on ourselves because we have so often become friends with the world. But, we can take heart because "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; He will not let you be tempted, beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out, so that you can endure it."

In other words, all of the sins that mankind has had to endure in the past can still be endured through God's promise that no temptation is beyond your control. Hence, any friendship with the world can be avoided because it is not beyond what we can bear. We can choose to focus on God's will for us and not on the temptations of the world.

See, Satan wants us to get entangled in our sin and lose track of God's purpose for our lives. On the other hand, God wants us to see our potential through his eyes - and we can only reach it when we allow him to direct us at all times. Again, we must choose him as our guide.

So, how can we avoid climbing in bed with the world?

Romans 12:2 speaks about how we need to think - "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world," it says, "But be transformed by the renewing of your mind." The rest of verse two is the kicker: "...Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing, and perfect will."

When you give God the opportunity to open your heart and mind, he will renew it. Psalm 1 clarifies what will happen to those who are "planted" in the Lord: "...That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not whither - whatever they do prospers" (v. 3).

Plant yourself in Christ. The true definition of success is not found in the world's dictionary, but in the libraries of Heaven. God wants you to prosper in him! We do not need to fear man (Hebrews 13:6) and conform to their patterns. If you rest in God's love, a love that fears, worries, evil, and even the gates of hell cannot vanquish, you will find an identity that only God can perfect.

Take a look around you. Do you see anything that will eternally give you peace? Wisdom? Love? In Ecclesiastes 1, Solomon is lamenting because he has searched and searched all human things, only to find them "meaningless." Even wisdom and knowledge he found to be meaningless because is all relayed back to the wickedness of man (source: Biblegateway commentary). Evidently, Christ was where Solomon could find true value. No gimmicks, no wickedness, and no flaws. Pure perfection in all things.

Sure, you can take pride in the temporary things of this world, but they will eventually fade away. So, what will be left when all of it does fade?