Running the Spiritual Race

For those of you who may not know, I am Christian. Much of my walk with God I can see parallelled in my running life. At least, as I work to balance the stress and determination of training my physical body, I work also to balance it in such a way that it doesn't distract from the growth of my spiritual body. The whole not having too much confidence in the flesh concept. This is a sermon I preached at St. Paul's Episcopal in Doylestown, PA last summer, which couldn't seem to more relevant now. I hope I can take my own advice. I pray it speaks to you in some way.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God”

- Luke 12 : 1-2

I am runner. Running for me has always been a love / hate relationship.  And nothing, in all my six years of competitive high school track and field, terrified me as much as my senior season of cross country. Nothing was more petrifying then the cb east home course. Which, unfortunately, happened to be where most of my races took place.

It was a cruelly devised course, that wound its way for three miles around the school grounds, across sports fields, along the woods and concluded with a lap around the track. The worst part was the looming grass hills that you had to ascend once, then go back around and do it twice more.

I would watch the preceding wave of varsity runners cross the finish line whimpering and staggering about. Some doubled over gasping for breath. They were tired. They were in pain, but they had finished. They can do it, I’d think, so can I.  Right? Right?! I’d stand at the starting line, waiting for the gun to go off, stomach curdling as I saw the hills waiting for me. Then I’d start thinking, well, what if I can’t.

Isn’t that familiar? Cause we’re all running our races as Christians right now.  And Lord knows there are days, when we wake up, and think about all the challenges we must face, and we wanna go right back under those covers, and never come out. Because we’ve each have hills that we must climb. Different and unique to our own souls. Terrible struggles that may take the shapes of illness, or of a lost job. Of a conflict with a loved one, or unrest at home. Addiction, failure, guilt or regret. We all have obstacles in our lives that loom high and heavy above us. Roadblocks in our walks with God. And you see your hill, and you gulp, and you start to wonder, well, what if I can’t.

And I’ll tell you right now. You’re right. You can’t. None of us can. Not alone. And glory hallelujah, we never are.

“Fix your eyes on Jesus,” the Bible calls to us. He’s not standing over on the side lines of your race. He’s not just cheering for and hoping you make it. He is right there with you, in the midst of your struggle, as your begin to ascend your hill, and you tire and you think, what if I can’t. Well, you don’t have to, because you turn to Jesus and He is already running with, ready to carry you. God calls on us to be persevering. But we forget, God himself is our perseverance.

As we surround ourselves with our fears and doubts our eyes slip form our Lord, and we forget that he has an intimate and unique knowledge of our Christian race, because He Himself has already run it.  He knows every step and struggle, every gasp and ache. He has raced. And He has won.

Yet, we are so easily discouraged. We look to that great cloud of witnesses, just as I watched the group of runners before me, and instead of being inspired, we think I can never be that strong. I am no saint. I am no champion. God is waiting to be your champion, just as he was for Gideon and Barak, for David and all the prophets.  Then, why do you still doubt?  Because you wish to draw on your own strength rather than His. As we race up our hills, and we tire, and we panic, we turn inward to ourselves and our own strength. We think I’ve got this, I can do this it’s all me right now. Guess what? It should never be all you. God’s got it. God’s always got it.  Stop striving and fix your eyes on Jesus. Run the race with Him. In your deepest struggles and fears, in the heights of your hills and conflicts, God is with you. You are never alone.