Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Run Christian Run!

I’ve known a few runners in my life. It’s not something that I am particularly fond of. Running is so much work, and not just during the race, but there is so much training and working before hand. Running, or perhaps more accurately, racing sort of takes over your life.

Despite my avoidance of the track, I think there are a couple of good lessons that we, as Christians can learn from runners. Paul used the language of running a race in his first letter to the Corinthians, so if you think I am copying from someone; I am.

In 1 Corinthians 9:25 Paul says “Athletes exercise self-control in all things…” (NRSV). And it’s true! The athlete changes the way in which he or she lives his or her life for the purpose of training his or her body to be good at the sport in which they participate. Everything that the athlete does is taken into consideration: sleep, diet, exercise, extra-curricular activities. In other words, the athlete’s life is centered on the sport. It defines who he is and what he does in all situations.

This is what Christianity should look like for us as well, Paul continues: “Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable one.” (NRSV) Paul connects something that the Corinthians were familiar with to the Christian walk. Athletes train all the time, and in all things. In the same way, the Christian’s life is centered around Christ, and every action is part of the game. Every action is important to the Christian and every action that one makes should bring him or her closer to the center, closer to Christ.

A second lesson we can learn from the runner is this: to run a race requires training. We may understand this, but I don’t think that we often internalize it. I think that we have become very good at trying but not so good at training. In reality, if I were told to run the marathon in the Olympics tomorrow, I could TRY with all my heart, and I would not be able to cross the finish line, let alone win the race. It would require TRAINING. In the same way, I do not think that we can be faithful to our mission, which is to show other people Christ’s love, by trying really hard. To be able to show others love, we need to train ourselves.

And like with runners, training can be difficult, but it also brings about its own set of joys.

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