6-10-07 Run the Race - Hero's Journey Part II

The Apostle Paul likened the life we live on the Earth to a runner in a race. What does a runner go through? What could Paul have been referring to (physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually)? In this message, we look at the body, emotions, mind, and spiritual make up of a runner and a life lived well on the Earth. Like a runner, we each go through cycles in our lives. The more aware we become of where we're at in the journey, greater will be the quality of life we experience along the way. This is the second message in the Sermon Series Hero's Journey. This message is presented by Jerrell Jobe.

Reflections from the Life of a Runner... Part II

“On the days 
I felt the least like
going to practice, 

I ran the fastest times.”

The human psyche (soul: mind, emotions, & will) is absolutely amazing to me! Of all the lessons regarding life and spirituality, this one has been a definite keeper.  Two thoughts: one, on the days I least wanted to go train, I ended up producing the best results and running the fastest times. I still have vivid pictures in my mind of this reality.  It would be mid-afternoon, and I could be found doing what I loved most to do…take a nap.  I was often done with classes around 2:00, which left me a good hour to nap before Cross Country practice at 3:30pm.  On more occasions than I can remember, I would wake up to the alarm clock around 3:00 o’clock. I would wake up in a daze, my body stiff and my comforter softer than ever. I DID NOT want to go to practice. I could imagine myself remaining in bed until the next day. My body, my mind, and my emotions were dead set against me getting up and going to practice.  There was one miner problem, I signed a scholarship contractual agreement thus simply not showing up for practice wasn’t exactly an option. 
I would grumble my way out of bed, share my intense lack of desire to be a practice with my roommate (who was also on the team), and then the most amazing thing would happen. Half way through practice my body began producing results that I did not expect it to produce just ninety minutes earlier. In other words, I would run the hardest and fastest times.  And when practice was over, I had full energy, fully amazed at the times I had just run, and in awe of how “good” I felt. At the end of the day, there was one concrete conclusion I came to again and again…”My feelings lie!”
How often, in our spiritual life in Christ do we simply “not feel” like doing something. We don’t feel like praying. We don’t feel like reading Scripture. We do feel like waiting in the long line at the grocery store, and we definitely don’t feel like stand behind the person with 12 items in the 10 item line. We don’t feel like serving our spouse, or co-worker. And, please! I don’t feel like committing to another night, afternoon, or Saturday morning. 
Just as with my “super-duper-power-napping” afternoons, we can think of numerous reasons that validate and support our feelings. But the lesson I’ve learned in the training days has been a powerful one.  For, many have been the days in my walk with God that I’ve not “felt” like doing something and had numerous reasons to support and validate, yet many, if not all of those reasons are founded in the feeling itself, which I discovered…was A LIE, mostly rooted in my selfishness.
Sometimes the best thing we can do is get up and go. Do that which we know to be truth, and the “feelings” will more often than not, follow shortly along.
 
“If what you believe does not reflect truth, 
then what you feel does not reflect reality.” 
(Neil Anderson, Victory Over the Darkness)

5 Benefits of Preaching on a Treadmill...

1. You get a workout while you preach.

2. It appeases those who prefer you to stay in one place so that they don't have to exercise their eye muscles following you across the stage.

3. It requires you to talk a whee-bit slower...

4. If you're talking about "running" or the Scriptures that refer to life as a "race," the message is demonstrated rather than merely 'talked' about.

5. It's fun... And, I've always wanted to preach in shorts and a T-Shirt on a Sunday morning...

The Bible is a book explosive with imagery and metaphor. Any image or metaphor is only as strong as the connection between the image and the reality it represents is clear. Paul uses the metaphor of "running a race" on a number of occasions. The sport of running is something that the Apostle had working knowledge of, and he assumed those reading his letters would also.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

“24-Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25-Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26-So I run straight to the goal with purpose in every step. I am not like a boxer who misers his punches. 27-I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.”

Corinth was the site of the Isthmian Games, second only to the Olympics. It is believed that Paul himself had been in Corinth during the games of A.D. 51 and, according to Gordon Fee, may even have made tents for the visitors and contestants needing accommodations.

Paul states, that every person competing enters into strict training.

All of us have ran at some point in our life, but few ever enter into "training" for a race. So how do we cross the gap of time, culture and context? Sometimes the best way to build bridges of comprehension is as we engage Scripture with creative re-enactment of what's being said. Perhaps watching a person run for forty minutes speaks just as loud a message about endurance, running, intentionality, sweat, perspective and the mindset we are to have in this "race," as the words used to describe the process. Often, that which is silent, but seen, is louder than that which has volume and is spoken.

Sunday, I did just that... Run on a treadmill for forty-some minutes, in front of some 500 people, while talking about Training, Running, and the cycles of life we all go through...

What was your experience?

Reflections from the Life of a Runner... Part I

"Every race
is not a P.R. Day,
yet everyday is key to having PR Days.
Consistency is the key!"


Every runner, on race day hopes to have a “PR Day.” PR stands for “personal record.” This means that you run the race faster than you have run it before, or at least for the present season. If a runner’s training is well planned, their times should progressively get faster and faster as the season continues. However, there are several factors that play into this happening or not. We will discuss some of these factors over the next couple of days and their application to spiritual formation

Though it has been stated that achieving a PR is a goal, there is much more that goes into a race than merely the finish-line. In fact, it is that “much more” that determines what happens at the finish-line and how fast one reaches it. Moreover, it is the practices and training times that precede the race that will ultimately determine what one is even capable of doing on Race Day.

Consistency is the key. In consistency, muscle memory is developed. When I was in college, during practice, I didn’t even need a watch to tell how long I had been running. With great accuracy, I could tell you how long I had been running, how far I had run, and at what pace (mph) I had been averaging. Several teammates and I used to make a game of this during practice. We would periodically ask, “how long have we been running?” and before another would look at their stopwatch, I would give an answer. Someone would then check their stopwatch and see the actual time.During the heat of training, I could usually get within 60 seconds of the actual time. How? Your body begins to develop what sports psychologist call “muscle memory.” My muscles could simply “feel” the pace we were running. I had timed myself at various paces so many times that my muscles learned what various paces felt like. (For example: 5:00 minute mile pace, 5:20 minute mile pace, 5:40 minute mile pace, etc.)

There is another side to the “muscle memory,” that also has direct applicability to our spirituality. Muscles begin to deteriorate within 72 hours of not being worked out. In other words, if one goes three days without working out, they will feel the digression when they hit the trails on that third day. This is why it is often advised to at least go for a 20:00 light run, even on the day after a big race. This is just enough to keep your muscles at strength, while allowing for them to rest and recuperate from the race.

After 72 hours, if one gets out of their training rhythm, training begins to be everything but enjoyable. It is always challenging once you get out of sync with your training rhythm. It’s hard, your mind fights going, your body resists, you would rather stay in bed!

It is the same with spiritual practices such as prayer, engaging Scripture, reflection, study, etc. Have you ever noticed, the more consistently you read, the more relevant, desirous, and applicable Scripture seems to your life? And, the less you read, and the more sporadic you read, the less and less Scripture seems to be relevant, desirous, and applicable to your life, as well as your current circumstances. It is the same with prayer. The more one prays, the more they become conditioned to hear the voice of God, His direction, and see His involvement in even the minuscule moments of the daily. There grows an expectancy and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit’s moving and involvement. However, when we get out of sync and don’t pray, prayer seems less and less significant, we are less expectant, less sensitive, and we begin to develop a greater dependence upon our selves and our own strength.



The daily is supremely significant to continual growth and spiritual formation. It is the daily that adequately prepares us for the day.

Consistency is the key?

Strength or Strain

“For thus said the Lord God,
the Holy One of Israel:
In returning and rest you shall be saved;
In quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
(Isaiah 30:15)

In our Western world, we are often influenced to believe that to get more we must do more. To grow in strength and power we must exert more energy. Success is achieved by arriving early, working hard, staying late. Working as long as needed, no matter the cost. Though elements of this may be true in the world of commerce, it is not so in the kingdom of God.

The kingdom of God operates on principles vastly different. To be strong, you must become weak. To become great, you must become small. To go up, you must bow down. Everything is seemingly backwards and upside down.

In the day of Isaiah the prophet, 8th Century BC, success and status was achieved by frantic, anxious military and political posturing. It is in this context that the word of the Lord comes. Rather than a reliance in one’s military, political or personal strengths, he say’s, let your complete reliance and trust be upon Yahweh. Isaiah is not a pacifist; rather, he believes that trust in Yahweh is the taproot of security. All trust in arguments and alliances, he reasons, is an act of mistrust and idolatry that will only lead to destruction.

“If you do not stand firm in faith, You shall not stand at all.”

(Isaiah 7:9)

Something happens when we intentionally pull away and pull into God in Solitude and Silence. Salvation (wholeness, freedom, healing, deliverance) is experienced in the midst of returning to the Source, and rest (intermission) in His Presence. Strength is released into our body, soul (mind/emotions/will), and spirit.

It will never happen unless we are intentional about making it happen. The writer of Hebrews even says that there is a rest that remains, but that it is not automatically experience and appropriated by followers of Christ. It is something that we must position ourselves in such a way to partake in it.

“Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.”
(Hebrews 4:11)

Learning to Pause...

"Learn to pause...
...or nothing worthwhile
will catch up to you."
(Doug King, Poet)

Peter Senge in his book The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization makes the comparison between eastern and western ways of thinking. They used the illustration of a person walking down a hall way and looking into another's office or cubical and seeing them sitting there in a chair "doing nothing" no typing, writing, talking on the phone etc, just sitting there with eyes closed.

In our western world we would assume this person to merely be day dreaming, dozing, wasting time, loafing, etc... Yet, in an eastern culture, they would be assumed to be in deep contemplative thought. Thought that would give rise to innovative ideas, strength, energy and creativity...

In this case, the less was considered more. We typically, peer into the office of another...and if there busy at work, typing, phoning, writing, frantically moving about their desk...we assume they are busy, significant and on the move upward.

In eastern cultures, this would be considered more of the "rat race" -- lots of churning in the wheel, lots of noise, but in the end - not much movement - only perceived... interesting.

How often do I equate my "movement" to success and significance? Too much...

Doug King is on to something, "Learn to pause... or nothing worthwhile will catch up to you." Daily, we are bombarded with so much information and external stimuli. More than we could possibly process in a week, much less in a day. And, yet it is imperative that we don't simply exist within the speed of life. God desires that we develop the ability to 'extract the precious' out of it... (See Jeremiah 15:19 - "If you extract the precious from the worthless, You will become My spokesman.")

It is when we develop the Art of Pausing in the midst of the business of life that God is able to break in more readily and that which is valuable begins "to catch up to us..."

a new strategy for a new season

Having three little ones has changed up our offensive/defensive parenting strategy a bit. I took off this week to stick around the house a little more as Avi came home and we all begin to get adjusted. Our initial strategy has been a little more "zone" in nature. Charissa has zoned in "man-to-man" (or... Woman-to-Baby) on Avi (beings she's the primary 'Milk-Supply,' while i've played "zone" with Micah & Naylah.

We've done everything from smashing bugs, chasing robins, long bike rides, trips to multiple parks and Tuesday for Naylah's first time - went to play Putt-Putt.

You know you've entered into a new stage of life when - as you're driving down the road you pass a playground and think to yourself, "Whoa... Now, that's a rock'n playground... I've gotta bring the kids here. I can't say I ever thought I would become a full-time scout for play-scapes, splash-pads, and side-walks suitable for training-wheels. But I must say I have one keen sense of discernment with dexterity when it comes to scoping'em out.