This spring I coached a group of girls for a running race called the Little 50. Teams of four runners compete in a 50-lap relay that mimics both the Indy 500 and the Little 500.
We’ve been getting together a couple days each week for the last few months, training to represent Campus Crusade for Christ, and more importantly Christ himself.
A few months back, I began to wonder what that meant. We want to glorify God with the talent He blessed us with to run. We want to be a witness to the campus through this race. I know the vision; I cast it over a year ago. But, this season, that vision didn’t seem quite right.
How does one share the gospel when you’re competing? You can’t talk during the race and everyone’s too focused to talk beforehand. As a cop out, I always thought that witnessing Christ’s character was enough. So long as we pray before and after, and show good, Christ-like sportsmanship on the track, that’s good, right?
Wrong! Christ’s character, while a great model for how we should live our lives, is not the essence of the gospel. After all, if following his character were enough, he wouldn’t have had to die.
The essence of the gospel is in the sacrifice. God gave up his Son, sent him down to die a painful, horrible, agonizing death in order to pay for our sins. This was a difficult job, and the pain for God began long before Jesus’ death. Like all good parents, God had to discipline His Son.
"It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it." Hebrews 12:7-11
I’m sure this verse strikes a chord with most parents, but for me, it took coaching to understand the weight of what God went through.
I still remember the first sprint workout I put the girls through. I hated it! The girls were tired, and out of breath, and looked like they wanted to die, and I was there, watch in hand telling them to suck it up, they had four more repeats to go. I knew they needed to keep going. As part of their training, they needed this painful workout to be better runners, but I just wanted to give them all buckets of water and tell them to relax, go home, and take it easy.
The gospel takes sacrifice. Runners sacrifice sleep, junk food, carbonation. My girls sacrificed their social lives, and sometimes their muscles and knees to witness the gospel. I think that’s one of the reason’s running is so often used as a metaphor for the Christian life.
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I pummel my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.” 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” 2 Timothy 4:7
And my personal favorite.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us…” Hebrews 12:1
What I love about verses like this is how you must understand the culture in antiquity (and of running) to really feel this verse. In ancient times, runners ran completely naked when they were competing. It gives new meaning to the idea of casting aside every weight, and the sin that clings so closely. Clothing is extra weight, which clings, impeding a runner’s stride. That’s why you see competitive runners today in tight spandex singlets. Running naked is inappropriate; this is the closest we can get.
And that’s what it takes to run a race well for the glory of God. You must shed sin. It’s easy to get distracted out there on the track. When sin entangles us we fight for the perishable wreath, it’s only when we shed our sinful selfishness that we can run unhindered for the imperishable wreath.
So, my girls sacrificed even more than sleep, good food, and social lives, they sacrificed their very lives. Dying to themselves, pushing one another to be better runners, but more importantly, to be more Godly women.
My girls won third place at this year’s Little 50, and while I am proud of them for that finish, I am far more proud of them for starting another race, one that they’re already running well.
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