TheRunningRev.Com

What are you known as?

A few days ago I wrote about how, after months of training and a few races, I now thought of myself as a runner. Of course now that I'm a "runner" I can't simply decide to wear that label for the rest of my life. I am and will be a runner only for as long as I keep running. A time will come in my life when I will once again cease to be a runner and I will have to say that I used to be a runner. At some point age, injury or bad habits will get the better of me and that will be the end of my running days. Until then I have to keep running if I'm going to be known as a runner, let alone call myself a runner.

That last sentence is an interesting one... "I have to keep running if I'm going to be known as a runner, let alone call myself a runner." You see, other people were calling me a runner several months before I was willing to call myself a runner. In fact the biggest influence I had in calling myself a runner was that others had already identified this trait in my life. Imagine if we weren't allowed to call ourselves Christians until other people were referring to us as followers of Jesus? Are we known as followers of Jesus or is it just a title we give ourselves?

The point is that many of us have forgotten about the importance of sanctification in the life of a follower of Jesus.  Like a runner, a Christian is not just something you become once and then can claim for the rest of your life. To be a Christian, a follower of Jesus takes a lifetime commitment to work, to engage in ongoing training, to endure and to persevere...

"Not that I have... already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me... But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining to what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:12-14 (TNIV)

Far too many Christians have given up trying, given up on living a holy life...

"What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if people claim to have faith but have no deeds? Can such faith save them?" James 2:14 (TNIV)

Keep following Jesus. Be known to the world as a Christian, one who follows Jesus the Christ.

Four miles

4 miles today, felt great, not sure of the pace but I was really happy with how I ran.

Discipline in running and the spiritual life

OK, I'm now willing to be called a "runner." It's taken the better part of a year, but after two 5k racers, a half marathon, ten miler and a marathon I think it would be dishonest at this point to call myself anything other than a runner. I may still be a novice but I am a runner. I actually look forward to going out and running.

I've been thinking about why I didn't consider myself a runner before now. Perhaps it was the thought that even a short (2-3 mile) run could leave me feeling breathless and drained, in spite of the three or four walk breaks I took! The truth is I realized that I never liked running because I had never trained to a level of fitness where it could be fun. Now that I have trained to that level I can appreciate the joy of running in ways that I never thought possible. Indeed with my new Garmin Forerunner 205 GPS I can track my speed, distance, elevation, best pace, calories burned and much more, I am a running geek!

The discipline of training has paid off and I am really enjoying the benefits.

I wonder how many of us have given up on the idea of being a disciple of Jesus because the initial training (spiritual discipline) seemed to hard. When you realized that 5 minutes of prayer seemed like an eternity, when studying Scripture felt like a trip to the dentist, when fasting seemed well beyond your reach and you looked at "super-disciples" and thought, 'I can never be like them,' so you simply gave up trying.

I used to do that with running, I'd see all these people faster and better than me and thought, 'if I can't be like that then why try at all?' But I now realize that I can be the best runner that I can be and I can be the best follower of Jesus that I can be. I will never race in the Olympics, I'll probably never place in my age group, but I will run on!

I may never be a Mother Theresa, Martin Luther, Dietrich Bonhoeffer or any other famous disciple but a disciple I will be, and I will be the best one I can be. I will train hard, so that when called upon I will be able to serve my Lord well.

Discovering that I could be a runner was wonderful, it wasn't easy, but it was worth it. The same is true of our life in Christ, not easy, but well worth the perseverance.

Six miles

Six miles today, ran with Jenny, felt great. We ran about a 9:00 pace.