Don't stop running

The greatest things in life are normally the ones which take the most effort and sacrifice.

A long distance race has many perks. It proves to provide great time to think, great scenery, good time away from the daily routine, and an overwhelming sense of accomplishment when you reach the finish line. On the other hand, a downfall of a long distance race is that you get tired and you find yourself thinking, "Why am I doing this?". The metaphorical race normally represents life, but the questions we face still ring true, metaphor or not. Paul and other new testament authors commonly refer to the life we live here on earth as a race. One of my favorite examples of this is found in Hebrews 12:1:

"Therefore, since we surrounded by so great a could of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin that clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." (ESV)

I found myself asking that crucial question over the past few days. I had hit a slump. I was discouraged over a few things going on and really didn't want to do much of anything. I was tired, and didn't see much of anything happening regardless of the greatest of efforts I would exert. I wasn't thrilled about getting in the word, I wasn't thrilled about getting any time reading the bible with younger guys. The things that would normally excite me and light a little fire in my eyes had turned to just another drop of water on a duck's back.

My first instinct was to try to fix whatever the slump was, so I could go back to feeling good again. To feel like I was doing right in the world and God was happy with me. Try as I might, I couldn't. So I began to ask "Why is my first instinct to try to feel good again? Why try to mask the slump with good feelings and hope that it goes away?" Shortly after asking that, like God loves to do, he answered me. It wasn't quite what I expected, but He gave me a totally different perspective on things.

"Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly in my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am made strong." (2 Corinthians 12:9-10 ESV)

I had no reason to run away from the slump I was in. His strength really was made perfect in my weakness when I stood face to face with my lack of worth. There is JOY in my slump! There is JOY in your slump and your dry patch and your tough times! We, myself included, so easily hit a slump and either try to fix it or just let it tear us apart. It makes us want to stop running, to stop fighting, to think it's all pointless and is without rhyme or reason. I mean, why would we want to spend time reading the bible with younger guys and gals if we aren't okay with God? What makes us think that's going to be effective  when we can't deal with the elephant on our own backs? Why do we think that God would incline his ear to our prayers, much like David so commonly claims?

Upon thinking all of the above, I went and I taught a young man how to spend time alone with God tonight. I walked away reminded of why it is that I do ministry. Why it is that I sacrifice the time and the effort and deal with the frustrations and the happiness and the anger and the disappointments that come with living a life obedient to Christ. The time I spent with this young man was so refreshing and exciting! It was rejuvenating to spend time in the word with him and see his heart as he so strongly desires to know more about God so he can live like him. God was the centerfold of everything that was discussed and he ate it up. I saw this man struggle with personal decisions he had to make, and boldly held his head high to face what was in front of him. I saw how God is going to move regardless of my slump, or if I felt like I was on top of the world. It was so great a reminder of why I want to invest in others for the rest of my life, why I should never stop running, and I hope it serves as one to why you never should either.

C.S. Lewis, famous for the Chronicles of Narnia series, wrote a book from the perspective of a demon by the name of Screwtape. The book was called "The Screwtape Letters" and is written as letters that Screwtape writes to his nephew, Wormwood, about how to cause a human to stumble and live a life disobedient to Christ. Screwtape says the following. It's a lengthy read, but it's worth it:

"Humans are amphibians--half spirit, half animal. As spirits they belong to the eternal world, but as animals they inhabit time. This means that while their spirit can be directed to an eternal object, their bodies, their passions, and imaginations are in continual change, for to be in time means to change. Their nearest approach to constancy, therefore, is undulation-- the repeated return to a level from which the repeatedly fall back, a series of troughs and peaks. If you had watched your patient carefully you would have seen this undulation in every department of his life-- his interests in work, his affection for his friends, his physical appetites, all go up and down. As long as he lives on earth periods of emotional and bodily richness and liveliness will alternate with periods of numbness and poverty."

Satan uses the peaks to numb us into thinking we don't need God, and the valleys to think God doesn't want us. Screwtape finishes the letter with this:

"Our cause is never more in danger than when a human, no longer desiring, but still intending, to do our Enemy's will, looks round upon a universe from which every trance of Him seems to have vanished, and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys."


Notice how the author of hebrews says that we should run this race. With endurance. He fully knows the difficulties that we face in this life, and only with endurance will we reach the finish line and be able to quote Paul's resounding declaration of achievement.

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:7 ESV)