I recently started running again. I've been using Vibrams Five Finger shoes and they take a little getting used to. I've been taking it easy not really concerning myself with my pace or time, just running to run. A by product of running for completion rather than to keep a pace or beat a time is that I actually like running. I know it's crazy! No one likes running! But running for completion is so different from running to beat a time. I think about my breathing differently and don't over think the mechanics of running! I can just run and have fun doing it!
As I was running this morning I couldn't help but notice the parallels between running for completion and the Christian life. Moreover, I recognized how I had wrongly taken scripture out of its appropriate context and based the way I've been running the race of faith. What is truly sad is that my arrogance and irresponsibility in rightly dividing the Word of Truth hasn't just affected me. It's affected every relationship I've ever had and I know that in some cases have hurt people because of my laziness.
I allowed my American mentality of more and bigger is better combined with the free market idea of competition and applied it wrongly to 1 Corinthians 9:24.
"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."
I took that little bit of scripture and formed an unhealthy paradigm for my life. I have been running the race of faith like an Olympic race where only one person wins. I treated Christian life like a competition where I looked back to see how many people I'd surpassed and making sure no one was around to overtake me. I looked forward in search of the next person I could overtake and step over to be first. That was mistake number 1 because I forgot that I can't be first.
Colossians 3:15-16
"He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on the earth whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things and in Him all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the first born from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything."
Running the race of faith like a competition, I became enamored with beating other people. Being the best by doing more and doing better than everyone else. The prize and goal for me was to beat everyone. The problem with that is I was racing for the wrong prize. The problem with trying to pass everyone is that eventually you end up alone. As this reflection dawned on me I began questioning. What is the prize? Is it heaven? What is the prize in heaven? What is the goal? Is it a mansion in a place free from sorrow and pain?
Philippians 3:10-14
I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
The problem with my answer to a lot of those questions was that I was still operating under the mentality of competition and "what can I get for me." I viewed Christ and knowing Him as a means to an end. Isn't that the kind of way most people approach Christian life? I follow Jesus because I want to go to heaven and have all this stuff. But I think that type of mentality misses the point of the Christian life. A passage that really helps answer the question of what is the prize and reshaped my thinking is
Revelation 4:
After this I looked, and there before me was a door standing open in heaven. And the voice I had first heard speaking to me like a trumpet said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after this.” At once I was in the Spirit, and there before me was a throne in heaven with someone sitting on it. And the one who sat there had the appearance of jasper and ruby. A rainbow that shone like an emerald encircled the throne. Surrounding the throne were twenty-four other thrones, and seated on them were twenty-four elders. They were dressed in white and had crowns of gold on their heads. From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings and peals of thunder. In front of the throne, seven lamps were blazing. These are the seven spirits of God. Also in front of the throne there was what looked like a sea of glass, clear as crystal. In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.” Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say: You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”
In this passage I see the focus of all of heaven on Christ. The prize isn’t heaven or any tangible thing that might be in heaven, the prize is Jesus Christ. I think that a more accurate depiction of the race of faith is like a Fun Run Marathon. Every runner that completes the race wins a t-shirt, a sense of accomplishment, and the joy of the run. When you run this kind of race you don’t have to worry about trying to beat someone and finish first. You can just run the race set before you and enjoy the run. Your goal, the prize is at the end of the race. You only get the prize by completing the race. Sure you can enjoy the company of other runners while they are with you. They can even encourage you to keep running or inspire you to run harder. You aren’t in competition with each other. All of you are running toward the same goal. That goal is fellowship with Jesus Christ for all eternity.
Hebrews 12:1-3
“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, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”
So now when I run, actual running and the race of faith, I’m running for completion. I’m setting my sights on the end. The prize, Jesus Christ.
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