Training

“No pain, no gain.”

This seems like such a silly, trite sentence. At least it did until this morning when I attempted to get out of bed. Key word here: attempted.  You see, at nearly 37 years old I decided it would be a good idea for me to take up running.  More specifically I wanted a goal, so I decided to train for a 5K in October.  I thought maybe that was doable.  This morning I’m not so sure.  But as I’m aging (what a depressing word!), I’m finding staying in shape is not so easy. Oh I’m still fitting into my size 6 and 8 jeans, but they’re a little tight now and everything isn’t quite as hard as it used to be.  More marshmallowy, I’d say.  Plus, there’s a whole host of icky health problems that happen when you don’t work out consistently, so I’m trying very hard to be disciplined. It’s pretty great when you have a built-in work-out partner in your teen-aged daughter, but also not so great when you your work-out partner is your teen-aged daughter who’s very fit and in shape.  However she’s encouraging and keeps pushing me on.

I’m hardly the first one to find analogies in running and fitness. God and the Apostle Paul said it all best, but I’m finding these verses very applicable all of a sudden.  Things like this:

“No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”  Hebrews 12:10 (NIV)

I know there are people who enjoy exercise and running, but I am not one of them. I do it, because it’s good for me. It’ simply feels painful, not pleasant at the time. Probably this has a lot to do with my fibromyalgia. Literally at times, exercise is physically painful to me, and certainly the day after a hard workout, your body physically hurts!  But we all know the benefits training yields. A healthy, fit body!  The same is true in our spiritual lives.  The discipline of the Lord is never pleasant when it comes, it always hurts badly! But, when we grow closer to Him through the experience and it produces Christ-likeness, it is a joyful thing.

My mom used to always quote this verse to me before she would discipline me.  It used to make me mad as a little kid! I mean, c’mon, I was the one getting the spanking, and somehow this was going to produce a harvest of righteousness?! Give me a break! All I was thinking about was the pain!  As a parent now though, I realize how difficult it is to parent according to God’s plan.  God tells us in His Word that we are to lovingly chastise and discipline our children, not in anger, but in gentleness.  I hate doing it! But, as one who has experienced that harvest of righteousness from a godly parent being obedient, I know and understand I too, must obey God and bring painful discipline into the lives of my children for them to experience the same harvest of righteousness.  What a joy it is to seem them growing in righteousness and peace!

There is another passage that I think about when I run:

Hebrews 12:1-3

“Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also ^lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us ^run with ^endurance the race that is set before us, ^fixing our eyes on Jesus, the ^author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him ^endured the cross, ^despising the shame, and has ^sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  For ^consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary ^and lose heart.”

Yesterday when I ran, I fixed my eyes on a certain point, “OK, I can make it to that driveway.” Then I’d do that and go, “Maybe I can go a little further, to that speed limit sign, across the bridge.” Each time I ran, I’d fix my eyes on a point and that would be my goal. I can’t run very far yet. We went 3 miles by walking/running/walking/running, but each time I ran, I set my eyes on a goal and made it there.  I’m not worrying about how good someone else is, just setting out to run MY race. How foolish would it be when I get to the 5K in October and decided, “I’m going to keep up with the fastest person here!”  I would never be able to do it and probably kill myself!  I can only run my race to the best of my ability.

The same is true in my Christian life.  I set my eyes on Jesus. And He sets my pace.  He has a race marked out for Me. I love this one conversation that Jesus and Peter have in John 21. Jesus is asking Peter to follow him and Peter does what so many of us do. He basically goes, “Hey, what about John?” And Jesus says this: “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You ^follow Me!”  I love this! In other words, don’t worry about that other guy or that other girl, you just do what Jesus has set out for YOU to do. Follow Me!  My spiritual mentor, Bonnie Thomas says, “Ministry is the wake you leave behind as you are running after Christ.”  I want to run after Christ wholeheartedly, with Him as my only goal, my only prize.