Okay, so I can’t help myself. I have to do an “All that I learned about life, I learned from running” blog. I really can’t help myself. So… here we go. ;-)
As I was preparing to run a 5K as the next stage of my running program, I really got to thinking about motivation. And I started to see just how much running has begun to change me. I used to be so afraid of doing something new. I used to equate having no desire to do something with not being able to imagine myself doing it. But then I started running, and I surprised myself because I really enjoyed it. I didn’t expect that at all.
Running has taught me a lot about discipline. There are days when I just don’t want to run, and that feeling doesn’t always go away after I get started. Some days I fight to keep going with every single step. For the first time, while I was training myself to run, did I understand what Paul was talking about when he wrote, "No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." (1 Corinthians 9:27)
Our church is reading through the Bible in 90 Days. At first, much like in running, you are motivated, you are excited. But somewhere around Day 35, all of a sudden it becomes work. And it doesn’t become work when you think it will. It’s not in Leviticus like you thought it might be… at least it wasn’t for me… it was in the middle of Psalms, one of my favorite books. And it continued in Isaiah, another of my favorites. I have my reasons for why these books were some of the most difficult to get through this time, but that’s not the point here. The point is that it doesn’t matter why it’s hard, it just is. And then we have a choice—is this going to become a way of life? Are these changes permanent? Is this going to really change me and the way I do things or not? And that’s where it helps to have a little imagination.
There’s this great little conversation in the movie “You’ve Got Mail.” Let me paraphrase for you, because unlike “The Princess Bride”, I haven’t seen this movie a bajillion times. (Just half a bajillion times…) The quotes are there because it is the grammatically correct way to indicate someone is speaking… ;-) One of the characters, an older lady named Birdie says, “Closing the store is the brave thing to do.” And the main character, Kathleen, says, “I love you …. But closing is not brave.” To which Birdie wisely responds, "You are daring to imagine that you could have a different life. Oh, I know it doesn't feel like that. You feel like a big fat failure now. But you're not. You are marching into the unknown armed with... (dramatic slight pause) nothing.” And that’s the key. See, yes, the Holy Spirit does the work in us, but we have to let Him do it. We have to choose to allow ourselves to be changed, to allow a kink in our schedules, to allow something wonderful, mysterious and unexpected to happen. We have allow someone else to be in charge. If we can’t imagine that we could be any different, or do anything any differently, then when running gets hard, or when reading your Bible gets hard, we suddenly don’t have time for it anymore. And the longer we let ourselves sleep in, instead of getting up to run, or the longer our Bible sits on the shelf, the easier it is to leave it that way.
See, the thing is that we don’t start out great and move farther along the path to wonderful or perfect. We started out flawed and have no way to get to the better path. There are things in each of us that we struggle with, things that we want to change about ourselves. But the longer that we exist with whatever it is we’d like to change, without changing it, the easier it becomes to dismiss the problem or justify it or ignore it altogether. And it even gets harder! Because if we decide we want to try to change, all of a sudden we can’t! Paul writes, "For what I do is not the good I want to do; no the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing." (Romans 7:19, NIV) Great! So, now what?
And this is what I just learned for myself. There is a partnership going on when you’re a Christian. You and the Holy Spirit—for better (not for worse). Just like in a marriage—it takes both people giving everything they have to make it work. The only problem is we don’t have very much to give to the partnership. All we have is our will: our decision to follow, to obey, and to hope, believe, and imagine that we will eventually get there if we are faithful. One more quote, the best for last from Veggie Tales. Pa Grape, as an angel, tells Larry, “If you want to hear God say, ‘Well done,’ you have to do what He says.” (“Gideon the Tuba Warrior)
As I was preparing to run a 5K as the next stage of my running program, I really got to thinking about motivation. And I started to see just how much running has begun to change me. I used to be so afraid of doing something new. I used to equate having no desire to do something with not being able to imagine myself doing it. But then I started running, and I surprised myself because I really enjoyed it. I didn’t expect that at all.
Running has taught me a lot about discipline. There are days when I just don’t want to run, and that feeling doesn’t always go away after I get started. Some days I fight to keep going with every single step. For the first time, while I was training myself to run, did I understand what Paul was talking about when he wrote, "No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." (1 Corinthians 9:27)
Our church is reading through the Bible in 90 Days. At first, much like in running, you are motivated, you are excited. But somewhere around Day 35, all of a sudden it becomes work. And it doesn’t become work when you think it will. It’s not in Leviticus like you thought it might be… at least it wasn’t for me… it was in the middle of Psalms, one of my favorite books. And it continued in Isaiah, another of my favorites. I have my reasons for why these books were some of the most difficult to get through this time, but that’s not the point here. The point is that it doesn’t matter why it’s hard, it just is. And then we have a choice—is this going to become a way of life? Are these changes permanent? Is this going to really change me and the way I do things or not? And that’s where it helps to have a little imagination.
There’s this great little conversation in the movie “You’ve Got Mail.” Let me paraphrase for you, because unlike “The Princess Bride”, I haven’t seen this movie a bajillion times. (Just half a bajillion times…) The quotes are there because it is the grammatically correct way to indicate someone is speaking… ;-) One of the characters, an older lady named Birdie says, “Closing the store is the brave thing to do.” And the main character, Kathleen, says, “I love you …. But closing is not brave.” To which Birdie wisely responds, "You are daring to imagine that you could have a different life. Oh, I know it doesn't feel like that. You feel like a big fat failure now. But you're not. You are marching into the unknown armed with... (dramatic slight pause) nothing.” And that’s the key. See, yes, the Holy Spirit does the work in us, but we have to let Him do it. We have to choose to allow ourselves to be changed, to allow a kink in our schedules, to allow something wonderful, mysterious and unexpected to happen. We have allow someone else to be in charge. If we can’t imagine that we could be any different, or do anything any differently, then when running gets hard, or when reading your Bible gets hard, we suddenly don’t have time for it anymore. And the longer we let ourselves sleep in, instead of getting up to run, or the longer our Bible sits on the shelf, the easier it is to leave it that way.
See, the thing is that we don’t start out great and move farther along the path to wonderful or perfect. We started out flawed and have no way to get to the better path. There are things in each of us that we struggle with, things that we want to change about ourselves. But the longer that we exist with whatever it is we’d like to change, without changing it, the easier it becomes to dismiss the problem or justify it or ignore it altogether. And it even gets harder! Because if we decide we want to try to change, all of a sudden we can’t! Paul writes, "For what I do is not the good I want to do; no the evil I do not want to do--this I keep on doing." (Romans 7:19, NIV) Great! So, now what?
And this is what I just learned for myself. There is a partnership going on when you’re a Christian. You and the Holy Spirit—for better (not for worse). Just like in a marriage—it takes both people giving everything they have to make it work. The only problem is we don’t have very much to give to the partnership. All we have is our will: our decision to follow, to obey, and to hope, believe, and imagine that we will eventually get there if we are faithful. One more quote, the best for last from Veggie Tales. Pa Grape, as an angel, tells Larry, “If you want to hear God say, ‘Well done,’ you have to do what He says.” (“Gideon the Tuba Warrior)
