I have never been a farmer or a soldier. I imagine I am not alone. Because of this, when the Bible uses these as metaphors for living in faith, I can understand them, but only to a point. I can understand them conceptually, but not experientially. But when Paul talks about an athlete training or running a race—now, that’s a different story.
While I am far from being a great athlete (OK, pretty far from even being a good one), I have played sports and I run. I imagine I am not alone. Many of us can relate to this metaphor more than the others. Our kids included.
As you talk with your kids about how the Christian life is like running a race, you might find it helpful to keep three core requirements of a race in mind:
1. A Goal
Imagine a race where everyone ran in different directions. How crazy would that be? That wouldn’t be racing, but just running near one another.
No, a race requires a goal—a finish line. As you run, that goal needs to be before you. Literal in some ways—if you take your eyes off of it, you might find yourself running in the wrong direction. Figurative in other ways—sometimes when you want to quit, remembering your goal, or seeing that it is not as far away as you might have thought, can make all of the difference.
Sometimes when I am on my weekly long run, I imagine how good it will feel to finish—to have accomplished running the distance I set out to run and to be able to rest, drink a sports drink, and eat some food. That post-run feeling of accomplishment and euphoria helps me to keep slogging through the steps, yards, and miles still in front of me.
For us as believers, this means that we have to keep the goal of knowing Christ and being like Him always in front of us. How helpful it is to consider hearing Him say, “Well done, My good and faithful servant!” to us when we cross the finish line and enter our rest.
2. Effort
But just thinking about the finish line doesn’t get us to it. I wish it were that easy when running. No, running requires effort, or exertion. Running is work. Driving your mind and body to place that next foot down on the pavement, push off, and lift it again as the other is placed down. And it is not a matter of just doing this thousands of times, but doing it quickly and with power. Running is hard, sometimes painful work, which is why not everyone does it.
The same is true when it comes to the Christian life. Yes, the Holy Spirit empowers us, but we still yield to Him as we practice the spiritual disciplines and fulfill the work Christ has given us. Few people just happen to find themselves running a race without thinking about it and setting out to do it. Fewer people find themselves living the Christian faith with little to no effort either.
3. Endurance
Most of us can run hard and fast (relatively) for a short distance. But running, and winning, a race takes more than that. It takes sustained effort, or endurance. The ability to persevere—to continue putting down right foot after left foot and back again over, and over, and over, and over.
There are times when I set out to run, say ten miles, but only log eight before quitting. The reason is usually not because I physically cannot run ten miles, but because I run out of endurance. My mind starts arguing with my body, telling it is has no business doing what it is doing. And at some point, I give up. I quit. I run out of endurance.
There are so many times in the Christian life when we will feel like we cannot handle what is before us. We will want to give in to sin. We will want to abandon how we are serving Christ. Endurance is the one thing that keeps us going to complete the Christian life that has been likened more to a marathon than a sprint.
This week, help your kids value the goal, understand the effort, and call on Christ and one another to find the endurance they need to run, and win, the race before them.
What makes life worthwhile is having a big enough objective, something which catches our imagination and lays hold of our allegiance; and this the Christian has in a way that no other person has. For what higher, more exalted, and more compelling goal can there be than to know God?” — J. I. Packer (1926-2020)
J. I. Packer, Knowing God, 20th Anniversary Edition (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 1973), 34.
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