For What Are You Training?

If you read my blog from yesterday, you know I have once again started running, training for an upcoming 5k here in Lexington, Kentucky. For 26 years, people have been lining up in downtown Lexington to be part of this run, which generally starts in the late evening, hopefully making it slightly cooler during race time.

My lovely bride participated in the run a few years ago, but I have not done any running in our nearly 9 years in Lexington. As I mentioned yesterday, my impetus for taking up running again was the Lexington Leadership Foundation's (www.lexlf.org) Team LLF (www.teamllf.com), which recently completed their first race on July 3, 2010.

As I was out training again this morning, my mind wandered to the goal of Team LLF; to mobilize the body of Christ in an effort to increase our level of faith and fitness. This got my mind thinking about the times the Apostle Paul used sports metaphors when referencing the spiritual journey.

I Corinthians 9:24-27 (God's Word Translation) Don’t you realize that everyone who runs in a race runs to win, but only one runner gets the prize? Run like them, so that you can win. Everyone who enters an athletic contest goes into strict training. They do it to win a temporary crown, but we do it to win one that will be permanent. So I run—but not without a clear goal ahead of me. So I box—but not as if I were just shadow boxing. Rather, I toughen my body with punches and make it my slave so that I will not be disqualified after I have spread the Good News to others.

It is only when we are disciplined that we will find success. If I want to complete the 5k this August, or had I been part of the recent 10k on July 3rd, I would need to be in training. To achieve success, I need to train. While training, I need to have goals.

Paul also talked about setting goals and how they relate to the Christian experience.

Philippians 3:10-14 (New Century Version) I want to know Christ and the power that raised him from the dead. I want to share in his sufferings and become like him in his death. Then I have hope that I myself will be raised from the dead. I do not mean that I am already as God wants me to be. I have not yet reached that goal, but I continue trying to reach it and to make it mine. Christ wants me to do that, which is the reason he made me his. Brothers and sisters, I know that I have not yet reached that goal, but there is one thing I always do. Forgetting the past and straining toward what is ahead, I keep trying to reach the goal and get the prize for which God called me through Christ to the life above.

If I want to know Christ and the power that raised him from the dead, I need to daily set my goals and then strain to achieve those goals. Just as I now have a goal of being ready for the 5k on August 14, 2010, I need to also have a spiritual goal. Will daily Bible reading and prayer help me better understand Christ and the power that raised him from the dead? It will help, but there should be more. Not only should I read and pray, I must then enact what I have learned in my daily life.

Just like simply getting up and running each morning is a good form of exercise, if I don't ever enter a race, I simply have a healthy body. How many Christians are walking around today with a terrific understanding of the Bible, having read it each day, but have yet to put it into practice? They are like athletes who only train and never compete. I believe that when you understand that training is good, but it is only when you have set a goal and then put everything into achieving that goal, putting all of your training into practice, that you achieve personal satisfaction. Sometimes, you also receive a prize!

How are you doing? Are you training with no intent of ever getting into competition? Are you reading your Bible, praying, and simply staying on the sidelines? What is keeping you from stepping into action? God loves spending time with us, but that time should compel us to become more Christ-like, and that means that we have to get dirty. Jesus touched the leapers, he lived with the poor and needy, and he ate with tax collectors. In doing so, Jesus changed the world.

The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is available to us today, we simply have to train and then put ourselves in the place God sends us. The power is His to give or deny. It is up to us to be sure to be ready when the time comes.