Training, running and triumphanting

                Despite my lifelong connection to athletics—star basketball player brother, cross country/track runner and coach husband, athletic son, etc.—I have not paid much attention to the Olympic coverage this winter until last Thursday night.  I was working on my laptop and figure skating competition began on television.  A U.S. skater, Jeremy Abbott, was about to begin his program, and mention was made of his “nerve” issues in high stakes competitions.

               As the program began, his first jump attempt was disastrous, one of the worst falls I have ever seen, and he lay smashed up against the edge of the rink.  It didn’t seem that he would or perhaps could continue, but—and this is a good kind of “but”—somehow he rose and did so with great determined confidence and skill, completing the remainder of his program almost flawlessly.  Scott Hamilton, a former Olympic champion commentator, could hardly contain his surprise and joy at what the young man was able to do having fallen so badly just before.  I was excited for him even though I never knew his name before that night.

               It would be interesting to have seen into his mind and soul those few minutes he lay on the ice after a fall that took him slamming to the hard surface all along his side, crushing against his body and against his hopes of an outstanding performance.  Perhaps in gathering himself, he considered his many years of training and competing and the importance of what would probably be his last Olympic opportunity.  Perhaps he cried out to God for help, or someone else interceded on his behalf.  But it was clear that he rose from that fall and within seconds, composed himself to finish what he had started with grace and triumphant expertise.  

               In Paul’s letters, he at times used athletic metaphors to illustrate aspects of living the Christian life of real, enduring and victorious faith in Christ.  There was training to do and prizes to be won.  Once he asks, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but (only) one receives the prize?  So run (your race) that you may lay hold (of the prize) and make it yours.  Now every athlete who goes into training conducts himself temperately and restricts himself in all things.  They do it to win a wreath that will soon wither, but we (do it to receive a crown of eternal blessedness) that cannot wither” (1 Cor. 9:24,25 Amplified version).  Being spiritually strong is not for the faint of heart!

               Eric Liddell, a real life Scottish runner in the movie, Chariots of Fire, was also a strong man of faith who had felt God’s call on his life and later served as a missionary to China.  In the 1924 Olympics depicted in the movie, he chose not to run the 100 meters race because it was to be held on a Sunday.  As the film shows him running in another event instead, he runs with his competitors and these words are “spoken” in his voice as the race unfolds:  “So where does the power come from to see the race to its end—from within.”  As his head goes back in running to the first place finish, Liddell’s voice recalls what he had told his sister at an earlier time.  “God made me for a purpose.  He also made me fast.  When I run, I feel His pleasure.”

               Like Jeremy Abbott, we as Christians need to be “in training,” growing strong in the things of God (earnest seeking in prayer, study, fellowship and service) and the power of His Spirit.  Like Jeremy and the apostle Paul, we will at times find ourselves feeling “persecuted . . . struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Cor. 4:9).  Drawing on God’s presence and strength within us, may we triumph as we follow this exhortation:  “let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Heb. 12:1,2).  

Professioning and believing past the "yes,buts"

               Several months ago as I was writing on an idea for a blog post, I wondered if it was a good use of my time.  Starting a blog was presented to me by someone familiar with the writing I did for the “Spreading the Word” feature in the North County Journal; I was not particularly enthusiastic about sharing my thoughts on faith in this new way.  However, as I “jumped in,” I soon realized that having the blog in place kept me writing down Christian reflections and insights.  Still, was I wasting my time?

               The day I questioned the value of continuing with the blog writing—for an audience of two, three?—God showed me that the writing, revising, reviewing of what I wrote served as a reinforcing exercise of faith for me.  I write what I believe, what I think I “see” through the eyes of faith and the insights of the Holy Spirit, not always in agreement with how I am feeling or seeing things in my particular circumstances. 

               Today a favorite scripture from Hebrews seems to match the worth of professing in words what we are, by the grace and inspiration of God, choosing to believe.  “ . . . let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith . . . Let us hold fast the confession or our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful” (Heb. 10:22,23).  Holding fast without wavering can be challenging, actually impossible apart from the faith and patience only God can supply through His Holy Spirit at work in us.

               The “yes, buts” of life pull at us just like the “but” or “well” that little Henry uses to squirm toward his thinking on a situation.  For example, on a recent visit to our house, Henry asked me if I wanted to play some trains.  “Sure,” I replied as I got down on the floor with him in our family room.  He then began divvying the train cars out, an engine for each of us.  The next five coal tender cars were lined up behind his engine only, one by one.  Noting the disparity, I asked, “How is it that you have all these cars, and my engine stands alone?”  “Well, so . . . “  But Grandma persisted, and again got some kind of “yes, but” flimflam explanation.

               Finally, I asked Henry, “What would be the kind and sharing thing to do?”  He thought for a minute and said, “Will you give them back to me?”  After my assurance that I would, he gave me all five cars, now leaving his engine alone like mine had been.  I was impressed that his 3 ½ year old mind and heart could hear my words and respond so well.  He just needed to “see” things differently and act on my encouragement.

               So, when we come to God with our “yes, buts,” our anguished perceptions or struggles, we need God’s perspective and encouragement to respond with continued faith expressed in our words and prayers.  In his time on earth, Jesus saw the same things we do, just like he saw the multitudes to be fed with only a few items of food, the waves and torment of the angry sea around the boat he and the disciples were in, and the tomb where his friend Lazarus had lain for four days.  But what Jesus also saw were the plans and power of God that were stronger and greater than what obstacles were before Him.  He knew He had been anointed by God to teach, heal, deliver and save, a dynamic ministry that was to be continued by his followers empowered to do so. 

              What Jesus says to Martha after he told others to “take away the stone” covering the tomb, He continues to say to us. “Did I not say to you that if you would believe, you would see the glory of God?” (John 11:39,40).  And don’t we all need, really need, to see such glorious demonstrations of what the goodness, compassion and power of God can do when God supplies the faith and courage to believe—still, well past the “yes, buts” in our minds.

Henry's favorite story still inspires

               A favorite activity with Henry, our three-year-old grandson, is reading with him before bedtime.   In a picture from Henry’s first month, he is lying on a blanket, and I am right next to him holding up a little book and “reading” its simple words.  Now he has quite a collection of books and also brings some home from his library visits.  But even with so many books, one of his favorite tales is about David and Goliath in First Bible Stories, a very simple children’s collection here at our house.  It is so curious how children want to read the same stories over and over, but stories of faith can never be recalled too often. 

Having faith, keeping faith often involve facing overwhelming odds and troublesome circumstances yet holding fast to an expectant confidence in God’s ability to powerfully intervene and turn things around.  Such was the case with David, the young shepherd boy, when he hears Goliath challenging and taunting the Israelites for the 40^th day in a row.   “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the living God?” he asks with boldness (1 Sam. 17:26).  David’s trust was in the power of God, and the Philistines fled when their giant was felled by the stone from the sling of the young boy.   Simply told in the children’s book, Henry could probably read David’s story to me at this point.  He does “read” other much longer books with dramatic flair!

 God has made major changes and transformations after a period of 40 days or even years in other well-known Bible stories.   Early in the Old Testament, God had been grieved by the wickedness of the people He had created and decided to destroy all life except for Noah, who “walked with God” (Gen. 6).  Noah followed God’s instructions, building an ark for his family and every animal species to ride out the flood killing everything outside--washing away evil and starting over.   Conversely, the Israelites wandered in the wilderness for 40 years for not obeying God’s guidance and instruction.

               After Jesus’s baptism, He fasted and prayed in the wilderness for 40 days and successfully resisted all three temptations of the devil (Mathew 4).  This was a dramatic and necessary initiation into His earthly ministry, which radically challenged the religious folk and masterfully displayed both the compassion and power of God.   Following His crucifixion, “He showed Himself to these men (apostles) and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive.  He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke of the kingdom of God” (Acts 1:3 NIV).

               Over the Christmas holiday, I realized is 40 years ago this winter that my life veered from a normal, healthy narrative to a more unusual story.  Over that winter, after several months of illness, I was diagnosed with paratyphoid, not your typical winter malady.  Filling in the years from then until now would require something of book length although there were years of healthy living woven in.  More recently, however, I have felt challenged by giant-like seeming symptoms of pain and rather frustrating efforts to find a diagnosis and relief in the medical world.          

               Thankfully, I have also sought God and listened for His voice of guidance, hope, and reassurance, and His promises of healing.  I have been changed and transformed over these 40 years, including innumerable occasions when hope for good health was on empty but God’s reservoir of courage and power “rekindled” gifts of faith and belief.  My own version of Henry’s favorite story with its “stone in the forehead of the giant” before me by the strength of and confidence in the God David relied on—sounds like a plan to me.