Press Toward the Mark

About a week and a half ago, due to a little bit of insanity and peer pressure, I decided to start running again. The last time I ran was about six months ago, so I knew it was not going to be easy. The first time I ran about 2 miles of a 3 mile loop. It wasn’t bad for someone who hadn’t run for quite some time. I was not going to guilt myself for it.
The next time I ran I was a little bit more prepared. However, as I hit the two mile mark, where I had started walking the previous time, my mind began to get weak. Beginning to walk again here would not make me a failure.
It then hit me…I had forgotten how to run! I was running based on feeling. I was not pressing toward a goal. I was running like so many Christians run their Christian race. Why are so many of us weak and anemic spiritually? Why are we not the Christian warriors that Paul and John were? Why are we not like the great men and women of the faith that we read about and hear stories about?
Perhaps we fail to view this race as it is. I know that I have looked ahead at the future as a long stretch that seems to go on endlessly. We are running. So what’s the sin in taking a couple of detours? Maybe stop by a neighbor’s house…buy some water at the gas station… inspect the wildlife…take a quick nap…
The Christian was not meant to be a drudgery, but any runner with a goal will find that running eventually becomes a pleasant task. The thing about having a goal is that you are far less likely to be snared by the shiny things this world presents to you. If you stopped every time you saw something shiny, you’d be amazed at the number of aluminum cans on the side of the road. The world’s treasures are a lot like these cans. Shiny…but utterly worthless.
In Philippians 3:13-14 Paul says, “Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” There is a goal and there is a high calling. As important as the things of this world are painted to be, they are rubbish and filth when compared to the prize that lies ahead. Hebrews 12:1-3 charges us, “Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” There is a goal!