Paths

My friend Wade-O just ran an ultra marathon.  It's called Holiday Lake and it's a 50K.  There's no way whatsoever you could pay me enough money to be an ultra runner.  Pain. Pain. Pain. haha.  Wade was telling us how difficult the second loop of the course was.  He was hurting.  His feet were screaming.  But when he rounded the corner to the finish line he had Todd and Frank running with him encouraging him.  He saw friends waiting, screaming 'hurrays' and 'keep goings' and he said the hurt went away, and there was just an incredible feeling of community as he crossed over.

At the beginning of the year we were looking at this scripture in Crash:

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 Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. ²⁷ No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.  ~ 1 Cor 9

Honestly, the first time I read this I was like. Phhsssshh.  Whatev.  Can't relate.

And then I started working out with a personal trainer.

Talk about beating your body.  My body screams 'I hate you!' after each hour workout we do.  But here's the thing.  If I don't workout I'll continue to be what I am, which is fluffy in places I don't wanna be fluffy.  I have a choice.  I can choose to do what I was doing and eat lots of delish things and sit on my bootie.  Or I can choose to go into strict training and beat my body so that I get the results and the bikini I want. :)

The more I work out the more I see the parallels to life and the scriptures about running become more real to me.  Walking with God is not a fabulous frolic through days of gold and light.  Life still happpens.  The sh*t still hits the fan.  So what is the point of fighting to have that relationship.  To keep walking the narrow road?  The point is this.  We are not running an aimless race.  We are in a real relationship with a real God who cares about us.  But in all of this we still have a choice.  Obedience to God.  Relationship with him.  These are choices that will take us down a path of life so that when life explodes around us we have hope.  So that when people fall apart we can hold it together because we are held by the Creator of the universe.  So instead of being people that hurt we can be people that heal. 

Choices and paths to run.

Whitney Houston's passing makes me incredibly sad.  But she's just one more story in a line of them.  Rich and famous dying of addictions because their wealth and fame didn't fill their hearts.  Bringing it closer to home, being around friends and family who walk away from God because they can't give up whatever calls them away from him.  Pride.  Parties.  Work.  Money.  Family.  The choices you make are a path that you are running on.  And the direction you are going is going to determine where your life ends up.  God says in Isaiah 55:

Why spend money on what is not bread,
   and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
   and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
³ Give ear and come to me;
   hear me, that your soul may live.

It doesn't matter how much I wish to be skinny and fit.  It doesn't matter how many pictures I Pin of sexy women in workout clothes running or stretching.  My intentions don't matter, my actions do.  My direction does.  Sitting in front of a computer will not change my body.

Change in the soul is like change in the body.  It needs action.  One run will not magically transform me.  One encounter with God will not suffice for a lifetime of relationship.  It's a continued action.
Wishing I had a deeper relationship with God will not make it so.  I have to pick up my Bible.  I have start talking to God.  I have to be involved in the community of the church. I have to love him. I have to desire God above all things.

But the good news is we don't have to run it alone.  As the family of God we have to support each other.  We are called to love each other.  We are told to run together.  There's a whole lotta people who've gone before us waiting at the finish line....

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. ~ Hebrews 12:1. 

Let us throw off the stuff that hinders, friends.  What is keeping you from God?  Whatever your intentions are your actions are what matters.  What do your actions say?  What's your path?

photo stolen from Wade's facebook. :)