Tag Archives: Forgetting God

Running the race

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Paul uses the metaphor of running a race to describe the Christian life. Running a race requires diligence, preparation, dedication, total focus on the goal, and the discipline of not being distracted. Sometimes the race is more like a marathon than a run around the track. There’s pain and suffering along the way. We fall down. But we keep getting up. Sometimes our job is helping others who are faltering.

 

I remember seeing a girl’s track team T-shirt years ago that had the image of an oblong track course with the words:  “Run hard. Keep turning left.” It was a humorous attempt to keep the girl’s focused on their task: to run quickly and not get lost in the race. Actually, it offers good advice to all of us in the race of life. Parts of the course are really hard. We might be tempted to give up or slow down, but there is no reward in that. Sometimes when the road gets tough, we just have to keep persevering and endure the challenge. If you’re injured or wounded, rest. Seek help from the one who can heal you perfectly. Rest in God’s arms. But stay on the course. Let him strengthen you with his sufficient grace. Don’t give up. Above all, stay on track. Don’t get distracted by ‘rabbit trails’ that take you away from your goal.

 

One of the enemy’s primary and most effective strategies is to keep us busy, even busy with good deeds. You see, he doesn’t have to get you to hate God. If he just gets you to forget God for a while, he wins. When we get distracted by all our busyness we start to think it’s productive. But if it’s just running in circles and we’re not maturing or really drawing closer to the God we will one day meet face to face, what’s the point? You probably know someone who looks busy all the time but never really gets much done. Where’s the value in that?

 

Paul wrote to the church in Galatia how disappointed he was that they had fallen off the path. He laments how they lived like immature baby Christians, when they should be growing in maturity and producing spiritual fruit.

 

Keeping busy and running fast is not our calling. Keeping on the right path and continuing to move forward in faith is our only worthy pursuit.

 

Have you found yourself worn out from all your efforts to be in control? Does it seem like you are constantly running in circles? Have you started to sit out the race and rest on the sidelines? The Christian life is not a spectator sport. Get up and prepare yourself for the daily challenge by being nourished by the Word of God. Keep your eyes fixed on Him and His calling even as you’re doing things you consider to be mundane. Run the course set before you as if you were running for (and to) the Lord. Give Him your all. Don’t give in to the worship of a busy life. Stay in the race you were called to run and stay on course. The finish line is closer than you think.

 

 

What you water grows

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In The Journey of August King, the main character is telling a run a way slave girl about his now dead wife.
August: In the last two years it was kind of like we forgot about each other.
Annalees: Did you love her?
August: I guess I did because I miss her so much.

It was kind of like we forgot about each other. Have you ever found yourself feeling that way about someone you once cared so very much for? I’ve heard people say, “We grew apart,” or “I was holding her (him) back.” The truth is, most of us have experienced times, perhaps seasons, when we have been less than totally invested in a relationship. And yet we all know one of life’s deep secrets: “What you water, grows.” Relationships need watering and nurturing. They need sunlight and air to breathe.

This is true of our relationship with God too. It grows when we nourish it. It withers when we ignore it. It was not just that the people of God rebelled against him time after time. They neglected to thank Him for his provision and protection. They just kept forgetting He was there…until they needed him again. Have you ever felt that way? That you had drifted away and any thoughts of God had faded away to the nether regions of your mind? In His place, you had surrendered your priorities to so very many other things? Or maybe you regularly give God a piece of your time and energy, but you’ve not discovered the sustaining joy of giving Him your all? I wonder if this is actually the most common experience of all men and women. It is not that we find ourselves against God; we just forget about Him for awhile, and sometimes very long whiles.

There is a cure for this and we shouldn’t mistake its simplicity for its power: Draw close. It has been said that you can walk a thousand steps away from God, turn around and find Him just one step away. How is that possible? Because He is always pursuing you, so great is His love. I wish that were always true of human relationships. We are all agents of free will, able to extend or withdraw the hand of love to those who pull away from us. Some say the greatest things in life are to love and to be loved. Even when someone else withholds love, what sense does it make to throw away the opportunity to keep extending love? Never give up on love.

What you water grows, in you and in others. Water love and it blossoms somewhere. Water neglect and it spreads all over like weeds. Wherever there is opportunity, commit yourself to loving well. Grow ever closer to God and you will find more and more opportunities and abilities to grow closer to others in your life.