Running or Sick

This weekend my son is running a marathon and my future son-in-law is running a flyathlon*.  I’m stuck at home with a cold.  I always say I’ll only run if there’s a bear behind me. But some, like these guys and my daughter, find it enjoyable and a challenge.  To varying degrees they train to improve performance and prevent injury.  Unfortunately, no one has found a 100% guaranteed way to avoid all illness and injury, no matter the training or treatment, so here I sit coughing and sneezing and feeling low.

I think in our spiritual lives we have all found ourselves in both places at times.   We can “train” by being in prayer and the word, doing small groups, attending church, etc.  All these things can help us through life, improving our performance and avoiding some pain by keeping our focus on God.  But we’re still living in a sinful world.  Sometimes the sickness of our sin hits us so hard it brings us low and makes us feel stuck.  

The good news is it’s not about how well we train, or eat, or study or learn.  Whether we're  feeling in shape and living strong, or feeling stuck,  it’s the strength of our all powerful, creator God that gets us through and has already provided forgiveness.  As we read in Isaiah, we wait on Him, not ourselves, to be renewed.

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“Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.”

Isaiah 40:28-31 ESV

*Flyathlon - run 4 miles in, fly fish, run four miles out.  Drink craft beer.  Run time reduced according to inches of fish caught.