My Spiritual Marathon

More than a few years ago, as I was entering the mid-life crisis phase of my life, I decided it would be a good thing to try and run a marathon. I had in previous decades of my life run 10Ks and half marathons, but I had never taken on the challenge of the 26.2 mile endurance test. I trained well and on the day of the race I felt pretty good. My goal was to run a 10 minute mile pace and for the first half the race I was doing well. I hit the half way point running the pace I wanted. Then it happened. I hit the proverbial wall. Right around mile 18 I felt the twinge in my hamstring as it began to tighten and hurt. By mile 20 I was reduced to walking.

Let me pull back from this story and insert my pondering from this morning. Following Christ is a lot like my marathon experince. Once your relationship with God has been restored by what Christ did on the cross you enter into a period of training in your Christian walk. This is the time in your life where you are beginning to understand who God is and develop your relationship with Him. For some this is where they also end. They fail to enter the race. They grow content with the ease of training forgoing the punishment and reward of the race itself.

I don't know when I entered the race. There is no starting line one crosses. For that matter there isn't even a standard course. Each one runs the race that God has laid out for them. There are hills that we must climb, but there are also downhills where we can "coast" a bit. Then there are the walls that we hit. Those places in life that come at us, overwhelm us, and try to cause use to quit the race. So what are we to do? Let me return to my original story.

I could have quit when my hamstrings cramp. I had run a good race until that point. But something inside me wouldn't let me stop. I had to push through the pain and contiue on my course. So I walked and walked and walked. At mile 23 or so my family was cheering me on so I picked it up and ran for awhile. Soon they faded behind me and I began to walk again. You see I was encouraged by my family which helped me to run again. Likewise when we hit our spiritual wall we need to find someone who can cheer us on or if the table is turned we can instead cheer on someone else. This is one reason why living out our life in community is so vital. I then continued to walk until I could see the finish line. It was a mile or so off but seeing the finish line re-energized me. I wanted to finish strong and I did. As we run the race we call life, we must be looking towards the end. Setting our sights on the end will help us to run a little strong and to finish well.

So where did my ponderings take me today? In my walk right now I am at one of my spiritual walls. My devotions have gotten tiring and my thoughts are at times wandering even more than usual. So what do I do. I need to keep pushing on. I need to reach out to my community for encouragement. I need to once again refocus on the end - deepening my relationship with God and others through the teachings of Jesus and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. Needless ot say I didn't win the marathon, in fact I finished 6856. But I finished I pushed through and completed the race. This is what God wants from us as well. We don't need to win the race but we are told to finish well.