Why I Still Run

Back in 2013 I wrote a post entitled: "Why I Run".   Six years later and with another decade under my belt I'm still running. I've been running fairly consistently since 1978 when I was dared to run a 45 mile ultra-marathon race in Kodiak, AK called the Chad Ogden Memorial Run.  Whereas, I was not in particularly good shape and would not have considered myself a runner I had the day off the day of the race--so I figured I'd give it a try.  Believe-it-or-not, I finished 13th out of the 26 people who started the race.  Only 14 finished.  By the time I got across the finish line, 10 hours after we started, everyone had already gone home except for one race official who quickly handed me a “finishing trophy” and said "another hour and we'd have sent out the dogs”. That was it….no band, no hand clapping, whistle blowing crowd cheering for me, not even a T shirt. But it didn’t matter because I didn’t quit and that meant more to me than any of those things.  What I remember about that day was learning just how far 45 miles really is, how much it hurt, but how good it felt to finish and not quit.  This was the day I became a runner and I've been running ever since.

Now, don't take all this to mean that I am a fast runner or an accomplished runner.  I'm neither.  If anything, I am a plodder, struggling to pick up one foot after another only to do it again a few thousand times until the run is over.  Anymore at 60, I don't so much envision running 6 miles as much as I envision running one mile six times.

But why do I still run? Well, whereas, I do find enjoyment in running, it still comes back to what mattered most to me when I crossed the finish line 41 years ago….I finished! It wasn’t pretty. No one else cared except for the race official who finally got to go home but it did matter to me because when tempted to quit….when my body was begging me to quit….when the blisters on my feet and my blood chafed inner thighs were screaming at me to quit….when I really wanted to quit….I didn’t. I kept going until my race was finished and in the finishing experienced the sheer joy of not quitting. And that’s why I run and keep on running….for the sheer joy of not quitting.

Real runners don’t quit and that’s what proves they are real runners. So what does this all have to do with anything anyway? I mean, is there any spiritual significance to any of this? I think so. I think it portrays and illustrates what so many Bible verses teach regarding the need for believers to persevere until the end so as to not quit, but finish their race.  In the end it is their perseverance that finally proves they were true believers for only the true believer will persevere until the end because only the true believer will be preserved until the end.  And in the persevering, in the not giving up, in the enduring until the end they experience the sheer joy that comes when you don’t quit. (Hebrews 12:1-3)

In this day when apostatizing (quitting) seems to be in vogue among religious "superstars" remember this--just as real runners keep running and don't quit--real believers keep believing and don't stop.

And in case you're wondering......the pic is of our last two teens still at home, Esther and Peter, who, while being able to run much faster and farther than me still run with me to make sure I don't quit.  Ah, I think that's fodder for yet another post down the road.

The Call To Worship

My family and I love our church.  We look forward to gathering as "the church" each week in order to worship God together as a family of believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.  In our church worship is the one word descriptor for what happens the moment our pastor makes his way to the platform and announces "the call to worship".  After that call is given through the reading of an appropriate text of Scripture our focus is intentionally pivoted away from anything and everything other than God and His Word.  We don't do announcements after the call to worship.  We don't "meet and greet".  We don't hear reports, make financial appeals, announce special events, or get out the vote.  We simply worship by focusing our attention and affections on our Triune God, His Gospel, and His Word in song, Scripture reading, prayer, and preaching.

Our church is one of the few I have been involved with that takes her worship of God so seriously that she is dead serious about not allowing our weekly one and a half hour gathering to be hijacked by  good and even churchy things so as to miss the very best thing we can give ourselves to.....worshipping our Triune God as best as we are able "in Spirit and in truth".

And when all is said and done, as we walk out the doors of the building where our church worships together once a week we go home spiritually energized, enthused, enraptured, and empowered to face six more days of a worshipless world as we look forward to the "call to worship" next Sunday.

What a joy it is to be involved with a church that sees the priority of worship and does something about it.  What a joy to have a pastor who protects our time of worshipping together so as to experience a taste of heaven on earth.  What an eternal joy to know and worship the God Who deserves all worship.

What’s With The Pic of The Coast Guard Boat? (Repost from 2017)

A lot of responsibility for a 20 yr. old

 That's a good question.  

The fact is, I served in the U.S. Coast Guard for a few years back in the day.  I started in Kodiak, Alaska and then was transferred to a life boat station on Lake Michigan where I was a small boat coxswain running a 41' rescue boat just like the one in the picture to the right.  In the Coast Guard, the coxswain is the person in charge of the boat, its crew, and how the mission is to be carried out.  So, basically my job was to ensure our boat and crew were ready at all times to assist and rescue those who were in trouble and sometimes in danger of perishing.  It was also my job to make sure my crew didn't get sidetracked and lose sight of our mission.  The mission, not us or our concerns, was the priority every time we went out.     

So, in part, my affection for the Coast Guard is one reason for using such a picture.  But, its not the only reason.  You see, the Coast Guard's mission is to rescue people who are in trouble and in danger of peril.  As I see it, that's the church's mission too.  We are to be involved in rescuing the perishing.  And this picture reminds me of that so that when I find myself immersed in all the nitty gritty of church life especially the administrative details, the inevitable internal conflict that comes when sinners rub shoulders, and yes, the good stuff too, I don't forget that first and foremost we're a rescue outfit.  We are tasked with the mission of rescuing, with the gospel, those who are perishing.  And we do it all for the glory of God and the eternal joy of those people who will believe the gospel and be rescued.

The Next One

I am told that in a monastery in New Mexico, my home state, is a small cemetery primarily used for the Benedictine monks who die there.  But, unlike most cemeteries, graves here are not dug after death but before.  It’s not uncommon for pilgrims and strangers to walk through this cemetery and upon seeing an open freshly dug grave ask, “did one of the monks just die?”  The answer they receive undoubtedly shocks most as it also awakens others.....”No, it is for the next one.”

So, three times a day, on their way to breakfast, lunch, and dinner, all normal activities of living, these men pass by an open grave reminding them of two things. Death is lurking and will not be denied and one of them will be the “next one”.

I wonder if this wouldn’t be a good picture for us as professing believers in Jesus Christ to cement into our consciousness—an open grave not hidden from the reality of living but as part of it.  An open grave ready and prepared for the “next one”, reminding us that one of us could be the “next one”.  

It makes me wonder how I might think and do differently if my daily routine included a continual reminder that I’m not promised tomorrow and that today could possibly be my last day.  Realizing I might be the “next one” might not be a bad thing.  In fact, it might very well be a good thing because living with death in sight tends to make one live better.  I think that’s why Solomon made the point, toward the end of his life, in Ecclesiastes 7:2, that, “It is better to go to a house of mourning (funeral parlor) than to a house of feasting because that is the end of every man—and the living takes it to heart.”

The thought that any day I might be the “next one” tends to motivate me to run the last lap of my life with a renewed vigor because quite frankly, at 60, the finish line is in sight and I want to finish my race well.  I don’t want to play it safe all the way to the grave with the intention of leaving behind a hefty bank account, lots of toys, and no broken bones.  No, that’s not for me.  I want to make it home safe by skidding in sideways, an empty wallet in one hand and God’s Word in the other with my body thoroughly used up and totally worn out making much of Jesus and screaming—“Wow what an adventure!”

It motivates me to run my race with endurance compelling me to lay aside my besetting excuses (encumbrances) and sins which have entangled me so as to run with my eyes fixed only on Jesus, Who, in running and defeating death before and for us, has already marked out the path we are to follow (Hebrews 12:1-2).  In this way and only in this way will we run the race that is before us and cross the finish line of death well so as to obtain a better resurrection (Hebrews 11:35).

So, might you be the next one?  Are you running?  Are you running well?