The Long Run
Then he said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must
deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me".
Luke 9:23
In his book, “Not a Fan”, Kyle Idleman
distinguishes between a fan and a follower of Christ. A key part of that is going from John 3:16
“For God so loved the world…” to Luke 9:23 “take up your cross…” Being a follower of Christ takes commitment –
it takes hardship. And yes, even though
we are promised the power and comfort of the Holy Spirit we still need to step
out in faith and do things outside of our comfort level. Jesus, for instance, had no place to call
home. Many Christians, even today,
suffer for their faith.
So what does this have to do with running a marathon? When a person makes a decision to run a
marathon it shouldn't be done lightly.
There is a lot of work involved.
Over the past several months I’ve run in beautifully sunny weather on
the beaches in Florida or by the Potomac river near Washington D.C. I’ve enjoyed sunrise runs on crisp cool Ohio
mornings. I’ve also run in the cold and
the rain on mornings I didn’t feel like getting outside – and endured long hard
runs on weekend mornings that have the potential for wiping you out the rest of
the day.
We would love it if Christianity was all about
the sunny days – the beach runs and beautiful sunrises. And praise God we get to enjoy all that. But being a follower of Christ means we need
to follow wherever God leads – and sometimes that’s in the cold and the
rain. Sometimes that’s a long 17 mile
run on a 20 degree Saturday morning.
Now here’s the important part. I choose to do that long run on a Saturday
morning because without it I will not reach my goal of finishing the
marathon. Without the training achieved
through the long runs, when it comes time to actually run the marathon I will
get to about 10 miles (of 26.2) and mumble “Why did I sign up this? What am I doing here?” And most likely give up. You see that in life as well. When hardship comes, a fan walks away and
mumbles “Maybe this Christian thing isn’t working out”. A follower continues on
because he’s made the commitment to follow, to endure the hardships as well as
enjoy the blessings. And as we follow
Christ and act in obedience to Him He prepares us to face the hard times and
come through them.
Someone once said the difference between a jogger
and a runner is turning in a race application.
When you turn in that application you are making a commitment to run the
race. You are no longer a fan, but a
follower.
I know I haven’t trained as well as I’ve
liked. I still have one more long run to
get in. But over the past 6 months I’ve
logged over 700 miles of running. And in
less than 3 weeks I hope to receive a finisher’s medal for the Pittsburgh
Marathon.
Someday,
even more importantly, I hope to hear the words from my Lord and Savior, “Well
done, good and faithful servant”.
Run on!
