RUN!

I was 2 miles into a 3 mile race when I could tell my shoe was becoming untied. Running a race is challenging enough by itself, but now I was going to have to figure out how to keep this shoe on as I ran. When I saw my coach, I asked him what I should do and he said to kick it off. “And run in my sock?” I thought as I kept running. I ran with it as long as I could but eventually, it got so loose that I ran right out of it. I’d like to believe it was because I was running so fast, but the truth was, I probably forgot to double check it before the race! 

So I ran the last mile of that race, which was mostly on a sidewalk with only one shoe on. Step, slap, step, slap, step, slap, went my feet as I ran, but there was something in me that knew I had to keep going, to push through. I’m sure I looked funny as I came to that finish line and I had one sore foot at the end of that race but it was worth it. I had pressed on. I had endured and finished the race!

Like I said on Sunday, there is something just a little off with runners. In almost any other sport, at some point, the athlete would stop to put their shoe back on. But runners just keep running. They throw off whatever is slowing them down and they keep running! The writer of Hebrews tells us to live out our faith in the same way. Hebrews 12:1 says, “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….” That word perseverance is often also translated to “patience” and “endurance.” It means to press on in the face of difficulty or struggle with determination. 

I would like to encourage you this week, to continue to press on, to persevere. We are not called to give up but to continue to run the race marked out for us. As we do that, we will shine the light of Jesus to a world that is in desperate need of him! Keep running church! Fix your eyes on Jesus and RUN!

-Pastor Steve