I hope your weekend has gotton off to
a blessed start.
There always is so much to do on Saturdays.
You try to catch up with all the things you did not have time to do during the week.
Face it, it is difficult catching up.
I had planned on writing this in the early morning hours, and here I am half way into the
afternoon and I am just gettng to it.
This week was one of frightful revelation to me.
I knew my clothes were starting to feel a little tight. But I did not realize how
big I had gotton over the winter. How many extra pounds I had put on since I last took the
time to check myself out.
The Bible says in ICor6:19-20 , "What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of
the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God and ye are not your own. For ye are
bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are
God's."
My mind started to do some quick translations. Today's equivalent of temple is
church.
Then I looked down at the scale again and realized I had become a mega-church over the
winter.
Personally, my only hope of weight control is the stationary bike.
It is that contraption, that usually sits over in the corner, gathering dust, but which if
I peddle for a half-hour daily, will keep me within a weight range that does not require
my body to have a personal zip code.
So starting this week, I am going to start peddling. Pray my strength in this
effort, for it really is difficult to sit on that bike, peddle ferociously, and know you
are not going anywere.
The scenery does not change. You are no further along the road than when your
started, although the speedometer says you are going at a pretty good clip and the
odometer says you are racking up miles.
Sometimes as a Christian you feel like you are riding a stationary bike.
You feel like you are running as hard as you can for the Lord but you are not seeing any
change in your scenery. You do not seem to be any further down the road to spiritual
growth than you were when you started.
So you start running harder. You can tell from the exertion that you are doing
something, you just can not see the results of your labors.
This made me think of two points.
The first being that God never promised us that we would see the end products of our
labors.
In fact, the contrary is more often suggested, that one might plant, another might
cultivate and yet another might harvest.
The second point was that when you run for the Lord, do go into it thinking it is a
sprint.
You have to train for the Lord's race like it is a marathon.
A lot of people get off the line fast, go burning up the course, but then run out of gas
before the end of the race.
The Bible says the race is not for the swift, but for those who can stay the course.
So there will be days when it seems we are doing the best we can, running God's
race, and yet seem as if we are going nowhere. Do not be discourage for you do not
know what seeds you may be planting, whose life you may be touching, what soul you have
started on the course to salvation.
And when you are feeling worn out, like you just can not run another step, when your get
up and go has gotton up and went, ..that is the time to look inside yourself, take a
couple deep breathes and then keep on running. For if you look alongside of
you, you will realize you are not running this race by yourself. God is there every
step of the way.
I thought if I wrote long, I could procrastinate a bit and not start my peddling to
nowhere. But it does not matter how long I try to put it off, eventually, peddle I must.
On this Saturday, we need to give some thought also to beginning our spiritual exercise
program. It involves getting deep into the Word, making sure our prayer life is strong and
yes, this piece convicts me, that our bodies remain healthy temples for the Holy Spirit.
If we do all of the above, we both will have the stamina and endurance, physically and
spiritually, to run the race that is before us. And God will be running right
beside us, setting the pace, for us to be able to finish the course.
We have to train to finish the course, and in light of the season, we can call it
springtaining. Are you ready to train?
