We often make the mistake of having a sentimental religion. By this, I mean, constructing a faith upon what we feel would be best or what it would be if it were nice and tidy, a precious moment, so to speak. But the Bible and the gospel comes to us on God’s terms and not ours. Because of this, we have to take it as it is given and not as we had hoped it would be. This causes us to submit to God, His Providence, His wisdom, His Christ.
Resurrection Sunday is another one of those parts of the Bible that is often remembered in a sentimental way. I think many Christians envision something other than what actually happened. We have sunrise services so that we can glory in the empty tomb. We picture Mary Magdelene, Peter and John running to the tomb in eager anticipation of finding it empty in proof that Jesus has been raised from the dead. But that is not what happened. They came to the tomb but not eagerly, not in belief, but still lost in their despair and misery. They had not yet believed and so their doubts and fears and disappointments completely blinded them. Among the disciples and even the apostles, there are no exceptions. None anticipated the Resurrection. None were eager for an empty tomb.
But this does not change the fact that Jesus really had risen. The disciples did not believe it and could not see it, but nonetheless it was true. And because it was and is true, they would soon be able to see and have their hope and strength renewed.
We are not unlike the first disciples. We are disciples of Jesus, indeed, but we have our dark moments. We have our Black Fridays like that horrific Friday when Jesus was crucified. All is black and gloom. All hope is lost. All confidence is shattered. We have great doubts and are at a loss as to who Jesus really is. Will He come to me? Will He save me? Am I really His beloved? Or was all that hope just a dream?
We all have our Barren Saturdays, when the day drags on without a word from the Lord. He seems to be gone and not coming back. Where is the joy that we once had in Christ? Where is the hope of Him being King and protecting me from the enemies of my hope? Will He fight this sense of loneliness, of apathy, of unrequited longing? Where is Jesus at this hour of great need?
We have all had our Dissapointing Sundays, when a hope has arisen that perhaps He will come, perhaps He will rise only to find that the tomb is empty but Jesus is not to be found. We thought we could go to Him but He is not there. He has gone.
But all of your Fridays, Saturdays and early Sundays do not change the fact that Christ is Risen. He has risen and conquered the death of Friday. He has returned and brought meaning to the drought of Saturday. He is right behind you on your disappointing Sunday. He speaks and like Mary, you must simply turn around to see Him. His resurrection puts all of the loss, longing, and languishing into perspective. It turns sorrow into joy and mourning into rejoicing.
There is nothing that can separate you from His love. You have but to remember what He said, to believe that His rising is the crowning of victory over death. And that in this victory are all the hopes and joys of your victory. He comes to you on Friday and you must see Him crucified for sins and your sins. He comes to You on Saturday and you must see Him bringing victory over sorrows and your sorrows. He comes to You on Sunday and all hope is renewed. He is risen.
Sunday, April 08, 2007
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Joyful Home-Part 4
It is not enough to get them to obey. I can make your little children obey. I am bigger than they are. What we want is to get them to love. Love to obey. Love to serve. Love to worship. Love to sing. Love to fellowship. You see, many children DO these things but many of them despise them the entire time. They are rebellions waiting to happen, just waiting for train 18 that will take them out of all this parental and family oppression. Sound too harsh? Look around at some of the families that you know that had 18 and 19 year olds that just could not wait to get out on their own and ruin their lives. It happens. A lot. And the scary thing is, it happens too often in Christian homes, homeschool homes, Christian schooled homes.
As I have done these talks or conferences, I have called them The Joyful Home, Biblical Child Rearing and Practical Wisdom. Who am I? Who is my wife? How is it that we are practically wise? At the risk of losing you amidst your shock at such arrogance, let me say that, We, are the wise. Now, you say, you’ve really done it! If it wasn’t arrogant enough to give us your children as your qualification, now you are painting yourself out as some modern day Solomon! God’s gift to the rest of us who do not know how to raise our own kids.
Slow down there, catch a breath. Let me explain.
I’ll start by saying, yes and no. No, because I hope the angle from which I come to you is one of humility, for only humility is truly wise. Yes, because Solomon wrote all that he did so that we would not be foolish but rather, wise. Those who heed his counsel, and the counsel of the other biblical writers, really do gain wisdom. They are not God’s gift to the earth or to every other human being that they can corner with their divine wisdom but they do have a wisdom that is gained from the experience of others and one that is empowered by the Holy Spirit.
This is not personal know-it-all arrogance. This is recognizing the fact that in your own strength and wisdom you would simply be a fool but in the strength and wisdom of God, you are wise.
It is foolish not to be wise. Why? Because wisdom cries out in the street. Wisdom is not hidden. Wisdom is all around you, in the Word, in the Church, in the good families that you know, in the bad families that you know, in obedience, in disobedience, in righteousness and even in sin.
What do we, my wife and I, have to offer? Are we the wisest of human beings or even parents? No, not by a long shot but to deny that God has given us wisdom is to deny His kindness to us. And you must gain wisdom, too, if you are to raise your children to God’s glory.
And this takes us back to my insistence on my primary qualification and that is my children. Without boring you with the pridefully blind parental details, let me tell you a bit about them.
As I have done these talks or conferences, I have called them The Joyful Home, Biblical Child Rearing and Practical Wisdom. Who am I? Who is my wife? How is it that we are practically wise? At the risk of losing you amidst your shock at such arrogance, let me say that, We, are the wise. Now, you say, you’ve really done it! If it wasn’t arrogant enough to give us your children as your qualification, now you are painting yourself out as some modern day Solomon! God’s gift to the rest of us who do not know how to raise our own kids.
Slow down there, catch a breath. Let me explain.
I’ll start by saying, yes and no. No, because I hope the angle from which I come to you is one of humility, for only humility is truly wise. Yes, because Solomon wrote all that he did so that we would not be foolish but rather, wise. Those who heed his counsel, and the counsel of the other biblical writers, really do gain wisdom. They are not God’s gift to the earth or to every other human being that they can corner with their divine wisdom but they do have a wisdom that is gained from the experience of others and one that is empowered by the Holy Spirit.
This is not personal know-it-all arrogance. This is recognizing the fact that in your own strength and wisdom you would simply be a fool but in the strength and wisdom of God, you are wise.
It is foolish not to be wise. Why? Because wisdom cries out in the street. Wisdom is not hidden. Wisdom is all around you, in the Word, in the Church, in the good families that you know, in the bad families that you know, in obedience, in disobedience, in righteousness and even in sin.
What do we, my wife and I, have to offer? Are we the wisest of human beings or even parents? No, not by a long shot but to deny that God has given us wisdom is to deny His kindness to us. And you must gain wisdom, too, if you are to raise your children to God’s glory.
And this takes us back to my insistence on my primary qualification and that is my children. Without boring you with the pridefully blind parental details, let me tell you a bit about them.
Friday, April 06, 2007
Good Friday Homily
2 Cor 7:9-10 9 Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us in nothing. 10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.
1Thess 4:13-14 13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
This night is a solemn occasion for us. We are reminded not only of the death of our Lord but also of our share in it. Jesus did not just die for sin or for sinners as some abstract ideal. He died for particular sins and for particular sinners. He died because we are fallen and dead in Adam and it is his desire to raise us up again to newness of life. He died because we followed Adam into sin with our own sins and thus confirmed the truth that all have fallen in Adam. He died because our sinful nature and our sins indeed have lumped us in with all the objects of wrath and have brought death to those who were meant for life. Without the death of Jesus, those sins cannot be taken away. Without the death of Jesus we cannot be justified and declared not guilty before our perfect and holy heavenly Father.
So, it is good for us to reflect on what a grand failure and horrific sin was committed in the person of Adam. He was perfect in righteousness and holiness. He was walking with God in the garden. He had heard God’s command and knew that he must heed, or die. And yet, Adam chose death rather than life.
He represents us well. For here we are on the winning side of the resurrection, on the knowing side of the Ascension, on the victorious side of Pentecost. Jesus has done all that He said He would do. He has kept all of His promises. And yet, we still, like sheep, have gone astray. We still, like the disciples, deny and abandon our Lord in seeking after what is forbidden. We still, like Peter, proclaim death-defying allegiance, only to shrink away from Jesus in fear of man. And all of this with the power of the Holy Spirit present and promised to us. If we only believed with our heart and actions the way we proclaim with our lips.
These are sorrowful words. Words of failure and sin. Words of hopelessness and despair. Words of guilt and shame. O, wretched men that we are, Who will deliver us from the body of this death!
It is not glorious that we are sad. However, it is most glorious that our sadness drives us to Jesus. For some, it is not so. It was not so for Judas. He sorrowed with the world’s sorrow and only discovered death. It was not true for Simon Magus. He sorrowed with the world’s sorrow and only found fear. But Peter was moved to weeping for his great sin. He was restored and became a mighty man of God. Paul was moved to repentance for his sorrow and was a mighty man of God.
It is not glorious that we are sad, unless our sadness moves us to repentance, unless our sadness brings us to the cross, to cast all of our cares on Jesus, unless our sadness brings the sorrow that leads to repentance and repentance to life. Then will our sadness be turned to joy. Then will our weeping end in rejoicing.
We have reflected on sad things here tonight. But let us remember that Easter is coming. We know this. We cannot be sad forever. Our sadness drives us to Jesus. Our sadness carries us to the resurrection. Our sadness is necessary so that our rejoicing can be inversely proportionate. We weep today, knowing that the Lord is near so that we can rejoice on Easter Sunday. As we leave here tonight, contemplative of our own sins and the fact that Jesus died to pay for them, let us do so with hope. Let us do so with anticipation. Let us do so with the knowledge that Jesus has already risen and that He receives all those who come to Him in true humility and repentance.
We do not wink at sin. It is an enemy and produces all manner of sorrow and suffering in the world. But we do wink at the supposed victory of death on this night. Jesus is crucified before us and sin and death rejoice. We let them have their moment for it has all been a wonderful feint and stratagem of our Lord. Sin is no victor. Death is no champion. There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Jesus has become sin for us and died for us, only to condemn sin and death in us. Glory be to God in the Highest. Easter is coming! Amen.
1Thess 4:13-14 13 But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.
This night is a solemn occasion for us. We are reminded not only of the death of our Lord but also of our share in it. Jesus did not just die for sin or for sinners as some abstract ideal. He died for particular sins and for particular sinners. He died because we are fallen and dead in Adam and it is his desire to raise us up again to newness of life. He died because we followed Adam into sin with our own sins and thus confirmed the truth that all have fallen in Adam. He died because our sinful nature and our sins indeed have lumped us in with all the objects of wrath and have brought death to those who were meant for life. Without the death of Jesus, those sins cannot be taken away. Without the death of Jesus we cannot be justified and declared not guilty before our perfect and holy heavenly Father.
So, it is good for us to reflect on what a grand failure and horrific sin was committed in the person of Adam. He was perfect in righteousness and holiness. He was walking with God in the garden. He had heard God’s command and knew that he must heed, or die. And yet, Adam chose death rather than life.
He represents us well. For here we are on the winning side of the resurrection, on the knowing side of the Ascension, on the victorious side of Pentecost. Jesus has done all that He said He would do. He has kept all of His promises. And yet, we still, like sheep, have gone astray. We still, like the disciples, deny and abandon our Lord in seeking after what is forbidden. We still, like Peter, proclaim death-defying allegiance, only to shrink away from Jesus in fear of man. And all of this with the power of the Holy Spirit present and promised to us. If we only believed with our heart and actions the way we proclaim with our lips.
These are sorrowful words. Words of failure and sin. Words of hopelessness and despair. Words of guilt and shame. O, wretched men that we are, Who will deliver us from the body of this death!
It is not glorious that we are sad. However, it is most glorious that our sadness drives us to Jesus. For some, it is not so. It was not so for Judas. He sorrowed with the world’s sorrow and only discovered death. It was not true for Simon Magus. He sorrowed with the world’s sorrow and only found fear. But Peter was moved to weeping for his great sin. He was restored and became a mighty man of God. Paul was moved to repentance for his sorrow and was a mighty man of God.
It is not glorious that we are sad, unless our sadness moves us to repentance, unless our sadness brings us to the cross, to cast all of our cares on Jesus, unless our sadness brings the sorrow that leads to repentance and repentance to life. Then will our sadness be turned to joy. Then will our weeping end in rejoicing.
We have reflected on sad things here tonight. But let us remember that Easter is coming. We know this. We cannot be sad forever. Our sadness drives us to Jesus. Our sadness carries us to the resurrection. Our sadness is necessary so that our rejoicing can be inversely proportionate. We weep today, knowing that the Lord is near so that we can rejoice on Easter Sunday. As we leave here tonight, contemplative of our own sins and the fact that Jesus died to pay for them, let us do so with hope. Let us do so with anticipation. Let us do so with the knowledge that Jesus has already risen and that He receives all those who come to Him in true humility and repentance.
We do not wink at sin. It is an enemy and produces all manner of sorrow and suffering in the world. But we do wink at the supposed victory of death on this night. Jesus is crucified before us and sin and death rejoice. We let them have their moment for it has all been a wonderful feint and stratagem of our Lord. Sin is no victor. Death is no champion. There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Jesus has become sin for us and died for us, only to condemn sin and death in us. Glory be to God in the Highest. Easter is coming! Amen.
Thursday, April 05, 2007
Communion Meditation-Inauguration
Today, we have celebrated the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem at the Triumphal Entry. I have mentioned many times that this meal can be pictured as the reception dinner of a wedding feast of the Lord Jesus and His bride the Church. I have also mentioned another biblical picture of this meal; the coronation of a King. It is most fitting to remind ourselves of that picture today, on Palm Sunday.
We need to see this in a new light, though. I think we sometimes picture what we are doing here as a precursor to participation in the heavenly kingdom of Jesus. We do this to give us the hope that someday we really will sit in the heavenly banqueting halls and eat with Jesus. We put ourselves in the mindset that what we are doing here is only play acting, or maybe practicing, for some future event. I would concede a bit of that. In the resurrection, I think we will do this better. After all, we won’t have sin messing with us anymore. But that is a qualitative difference.
Suppose a child were to enact a high tea but they did not do it with little plastic cups and kettles. They asked mother to provide the real china, a teapot, some brownies and cakes and real little girls to share it all with. Mother obliges. Is this a tea party? A real, bonafide, tea party? Yes, absolutely, it is just the five year old version. But the tea is real, the brownies are real, the freinds are real.
Is our inauguration party real? Absolutely. Is Jesus here? In might and power. Is the food and drink nourishing and gladdening? Like none other.
So, let us say, "All Hail to King Jesus!"
We need to see this in a new light, though. I think we sometimes picture what we are doing here as a precursor to participation in the heavenly kingdom of Jesus. We do this to give us the hope that someday we really will sit in the heavenly banqueting halls and eat with Jesus. We put ourselves in the mindset that what we are doing here is only play acting, or maybe practicing, for some future event. I would concede a bit of that. In the resurrection, I think we will do this better. After all, we won’t have sin messing with us anymore. But that is a qualitative difference.
Suppose a child were to enact a high tea but they did not do it with little plastic cups and kettles. They asked mother to provide the real china, a teapot, some brownies and cakes and real little girls to share it all with. Mother obliges. Is this a tea party? A real, bonafide, tea party? Yes, absolutely, it is just the five year old version. But the tea is real, the brownies are real, the freinds are real.
Is our inauguration party real? Absolutely. Is Jesus here? In might and power. Is the food and drink nourishing and gladdening? Like none other.
So, let us say, "All Hail to King Jesus!"
Exhortation-God Laughs
This is Holy Week, a week in which we remember many important events from our Christian history and the life of Jesus.
First of all, today we remember and celebrate the triumphal entry, the fact that Jesus is King, not just of heaven but also of earth. The day comes with high hopes but the week seems to lead on with tragedy looming. But is it tragedy or comedy?
The arrest on Thursday after Jesus eats with the twelve, one of them betrayer. Tragedy shapes up and thickens or is Jesus working a Divine Comedy, fattening up the adversaries for the fall, the last laugh, the cosmic, gotcha!
The trial. A trial? Can you call it that? But no, God is working a stage and all the world’s characters are merely players.
The execution of Jesus on the Cross. If the rulers of this world had known what God was doing, they would not have killed the Lord of Glory? Why? Because He was good? No, because God was laughing them into derision through the cross.
The darkness when the Light is taken from the Earth. But a new day is dawning, one that will rise and shine brighter and brighter until a full day.
The death of Jesus, the hope of Israel. The death was necessary and had to be. Jesus had even made some simple attempts at explaining it but not in such a way that His disciples ever figured it out. It is almost as if God is trifling with our emotions so that our tears of sorrow will turn into peals of joy.
The sorrow of lost hopes and failed loyalties, the ignorance and unbelief of the apostles.
The despair of Saturday, sad, heavy hearts. A good plan gone awry.
The doubtful wondering about Jesus and who Jesus thought He was. Gloom and despair.
An empathetic God watching like a mother watching her two year old search for her on the next aisle at the department store. The child is frantic. The mother is empathetic and amused at the same time. The child is lost. The mother is in complete control. A tragedy to the child. A comedy to the mother.
The resurrection with all its glory, making sense of all the senseless failures of the week. The joke is out. The Lord is alive.
The tragedy takes a turn and all the players bow with smiles and the crowd is relieved. The mockery of Jesus is turned into God's mockery of unbelief, His mockery of rebellion and of lost hope.
And God laughs.
First of all, today we remember and celebrate the triumphal entry, the fact that Jesus is King, not just of heaven but also of earth. The day comes with high hopes but the week seems to lead on with tragedy looming. But is it tragedy or comedy?
The arrest on Thursday after Jesus eats with the twelve, one of them betrayer. Tragedy shapes up and thickens or is Jesus working a Divine Comedy, fattening up the adversaries for the fall, the last laugh, the cosmic, gotcha!
The trial. A trial? Can you call it that? But no, God is working a stage and all the world’s characters are merely players.
The execution of Jesus on the Cross. If the rulers of this world had known what God was doing, they would not have killed the Lord of Glory? Why? Because He was good? No, because God was laughing them into derision through the cross.
The darkness when the Light is taken from the Earth. But a new day is dawning, one that will rise and shine brighter and brighter until a full day.
The death of Jesus, the hope of Israel. The death was necessary and had to be. Jesus had even made some simple attempts at explaining it but not in such a way that His disciples ever figured it out. It is almost as if God is trifling with our emotions so that our tears of sorrow will turn into peals of joy.
The sorrow of lost hopes and failed loyalties, the ignorance and unbelief of the apostles.
The despair of Saturday, sad, heavy hearts. A good plan gone awry.
The doubtful wondering about Jesus and who Jesus thought He was. Gloom and despair.
An empathetic God watching like a mother watching her two year old search for her on the next aisle at the department store. The child is frantic. The mother is empathetic and amused at the same time. The child is lost. The mother is in complete control. A tragedy to the child. A comedy to the mother.
The resurrection with all its glory, making sense of all the senseless failures of the week. The joke is out. The Lord is alive.
The tragedy takes a turn and all the players bow with smiles and the crowd is relieved. The mockery of Jesus is turned into God's mockery of unbelief, His mockery of rebellion and of lost hope.
And God laughs.
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
Joyful Home-Part 3
I think a basic question that needs answered is, “Why is this man qualified to tell me how to raise my kids?” The answer to that could be short and smart aleck. Because I am a pastor and can deliver God’s Word to you about how to do this. If the Bible says it and I say what the Bible says then you are all obligated to follow. In one sense this is true and we all ought to be willing to hear the Bible and wisdom from whatever quarter it comes from. We ought to be able to learn from godly wise men and we ought to be able to learn from the foolish.
Solomon, himself, uses this tack. He teaches his son from a storehouse of wisdom, through many victories and many failures. He also asks his son to come over and look out the window at a young man being seduced by an adulteress. He wants his son to see the fool being led to his doom. So, even fools can teach wisdom to a wise man. To him who has, even more will be given.
I am not asserting a bald truth kind of authority here. I do intend to teach biblical principles and to show them applied in the world in which we live. But my qualification is more than words, even bible words, or books or knowledge or simply being right. I need to have those qualifications but if I have those and I do not have this other qualification, then I would not expect you to have much confidence in the things that I am going to say.
So, what is this other basic qualification? If it is not intrinsic or learned knowledge, bible beating, formulated God-speak, ordination magic, or anything else of that nature, then what is it?
Well, quite simply said, it is my children.
“Now that’s an arrogant thing to say! Another one of those perfect kid maniacs telling everyone else how to do it.”
Well, I hope not. I have read enough of the paint by numbers child trainging sorts of books and seen enough train wrecks of lives from that methodology, that this is manifestly NOT what I am presenting here.
I do want to give you biblical principles. I do want to hold out hope to you. I do want to proclaim the promises of God in Christ for you and your children. All of this while robustly affirming the nature of our Triune God. He is One in Three. This nature of God is the foundation for every form of diversity in the body of Christ. We are all different. Our families are different. Parents have very different backgrounds. Number of children, gender make-up of the children, church and historical background, and a thousand other variables give us a wonderful tapestry of families in the church. They should all be woven together into a glorious picture of faithfulness in God’s promises. It will look very different from family to family. But what ought to be evident in all of these very different Christian families is love, respect, honor, obedience, cheerfulness and service.
I will give you some very practical ‘how tos’ but that always makes me a bit nervous. Whenever the teaching gets too method oriented, the tendency is to latch on to the method as the principle. I don’t want this to happen. We lose the sense of diversity, or the Triune nature of God and end up insisting on training and education having to be done a particular way. That is a grave and costly mistake. It is one that invariably sucks the love and life out of the process. The parents are frustrated and the children end up despising the things that they should love. And that is our real goal in training and educating our children; to get them to love the things that we love, particularly our God and our neighbor.
Solomon, himself, uses this tack. He teaches his son from a storehouse of wisdom, through many victories and many failures. He also asks his son to come over and look out the window at a young man being seduced by an adulteress. He wants his son to see the fool being led to his doom. So, even fools can teach wisdom to a wise man. To him who has, even more will be given.
I am not asserting a bald truth kind of authority here. I do intend to teach biblical principles and to show them applied in the world in which we live. But my qualification is more than words, even bible words, or books or knowledge or simply being right. I need to have those qualifications but if I have those and I do not have this other qualification, then I would not expect you to have much confidence in the things that I am going to say.
So, what is this other basic qualification? If it is not intrinsic or learned knowledge, bible beating, formulated God-speak, ordination magic, or anything else of that nature, then what is it?
Well, quite simply said, it is my children.
“Now that’s an arrogant thing to say! Another one of those perfect kid maniacs telling everyone else how to do it.”
Well, I hope not. I have read enough of the paint by numbers child trainging sorts of books and seen enough train wrecks of lives from that methodology, that this is manifestly NOT what I am presenting here.
I do want to give you biblical principles. I do want to hold out hope to you. I do want to proclaim the promises of God in Christ for you and your children. All of this while robustly affirming the nature of our Triune God. He is One in Three. This nature of God is the foundation for every form of diversity in the body of Christ. We are all different. Our families are different. Parents have very different backgrounds. Number of children, gender make-up of the children, church and historical background, and a thousand other variables give us a wonderful tapestry of families in the church. They should all be woven together into a glorious picture of faithfulness in God’s promises. It will look very different from family to family. But what ought to be evident in all of these very different Christian families is love, respect, honor, obedience, cheerfulness and service.
I will give you some very practical ‘how tos’ but that always makes me a bit nervous. Whenever the teaching gets too method oriented, the tendency is to latch on to the method as the principle. I don’t want this to happen. We lose the sense of diversity, or the Triune nature of God and end up insisting on training and education having to be done a particular way. That is a grave and costly mistake. It is one that invariably sucks the love and life out of the process. The parents are frustrated and the children end up despising the things that they should love. And that is our real goal in training and educating our children; to get them to love the things that we love, particularly our God and our neighbor.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Joyful Home-Part 2
Before we dive into the how to of raising children we need to gain some helpful Biblical foundations.
Proverbs 1:20-33 says Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.
Notice that Wisdom is crying out. We often make such a big deal about the wise man, whether he is a pastor, an author or the Dalai Lama. We think wisdom is so difficult to find and to hold onto that it is out of reach for the common man. Of course, this is not true. The Scriptures tell us that wisdom is crying out. She is yelling into the mean streets for someone to hear her. She earnestly desires that someone would heed so that she could impart her riches.
The point here is that Wisdom can and ought to be found. The sad fact is that many, especially the young and foolish disdain Wisdom and follow after their own selfish desires. But we must remember that Wisdom is crying out and our job is to have ears to hear and hearts to obey. Wisdom is near you. Listen.
Contrast Wisdom’s plea above, and the seeming response of fools, to the Wisdom gained by the Proverbs 31 woman.
Prov 31:26-31 She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.
What is the difference? Why does one gain Wisdom and another disdain it? Of course, we can get into complex and often obtuse theological discussions about the divine election and the sovereignty of God but the plain facts are much simpler. One listened to the voice of Wisdom, the other ignored her. As a Christian parent, your job is to hear and heed Wisdom.
Proverbs 1:20-33 says Wisdom crieth without; she uttereth her voice in the streets: She crieth in the chief place of concourse, in the openings of the gates: in the city she uttereth her words, saying, How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD: They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.
Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil.
Notice that Wisdom is crying out. We often make such a big deal about the wise man, whether he is a pastor, an author or the Dalai Lama. We think wisdom is so difficult to find and to hold onto that it is out of reach for the common man. Of course, this is not true. The Scriptures tell us that wisdom is crying out. She is yelling into the mean streets for someone to hear her. She earnestly desires that someone would heed so that she could impart her riches.
The point here is that Wisdom can and ought to be found. The sad fact is that many, especially the young and foolish disdain Wisdom and follow after their own selfish desires. But we must remember that Wisdom is crying out and our job is to have ears to hear and hearts to obey. Wisdom is near you. Listen.
Contrast Wisdom’s plea above, and the seeming response of fools, to the Wisdom gained by the Proverbs 31 woman.
Prov 31:26-31 She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.
What is the difference? Why does one gain Wisdom and another disdain it? Of course, we can get into complex and often obtuse theological discussions about the divine election and the sovereignty of God but the plain facts are much simpler. One listened to the voice of Wisdom, the other ignored her. As a Christian parent, your job is to hear and heed Wisdom.
Running for Your Life-Part 9
When I hit the mile twenty-five marker, I began to experience something that is often talked about by many runners but seldom experienced, at least by me. I got the runner’s high. At least that is what I think it was, the runner’s high or the natural painkillers. Perhaps it was simply jubilation. Not sure exactly. All I know is that at that point, I was absolutely sure that I was going to finish. Nothing hurt. I was not really very tired.
Every few steps I would think of finishing and tears would well up in my eyes. I tried to block out the picture of the finish line in my mind and that only made me run faster. Not sure what my last mile pace was but I know it was my fastest, by far, of the last four or five. Probably around a 7:30. Fortunately, the Richmond Marathon finishes going down hill. To this day, my memory of finishing the race is going the opposite way of the direction the race actually finishes.
That is strange. I think I was having a very strange experience indeed.
The emotions of the last few miles continued to build as I came down the last few hundred yards. I have a picture of myself with a contorted tearful face as I came across the finish line.
As a former football player, and one who fashions himself a man’s man, I was a bit embarrassed. But only for a moment. As I stood there in my great heaves of sobs, I noticed the same thing going on around me with runner after runner. Here we were, finishers, survivors. Scattered here and there were battered but victorious warriors, a great number of them in tears, not because of pain but because of victory, because of achievement.
Since that first marathon, I have finished two more. Neither of them produced the same emotional state as the first. But in their own way, they did provide milestones of significant and meaningful personal accomplishment.
I have learned a few things since that first marathon. I have learned things about myself. I have learned some things about running. And from these, most importantly, I have learned some things about life.
You may never run 26.2 miles, but if you are reading these words, you are already in a marathon, the important one, called life. In all of your endeavors, as you run, remember that the second half is always downhill.
Every few steps I would think of finishing and tears would well up in my eyes. I tried to block out the picture of the finish line in my mind and that only made me run faster. Not sure what my last mile pace was but I know it was my fastest, by far, of the last four or five. Probably around a 7:30. Fortunately, the Richmond Marathon finishes going down hill. To this day, my memory of finishing the race is going the opposite way of the direction the race actually finishes.
That is strange. I think I was having a very strange experience indeed.
The emotions of the last few miles continued to build as I came down the last few hundred yards. I have a picture of myself with a contorted tearful face as I came across the finish line.
As a former football player, and one who fashions himself a man’s man, I was a bit embarrassed. But only for a moment. As I stood there in my great heaves of sobs, I noticed the same thing going on around me with runner after runner. Here we were, finishers, survivors. Scattered here and there were battered but victorious warriors, a great number of them in tears, not because of pain but because of victory, because of achievement.
Since that first marathon, I have finished two more. Neither of them produced the same emotional state as the first. But in their own way, they did provide milestones of significant and meaningful personal accomplishment.
I have learned a few things since that first marathon. I have learned things about myself. I have learned some things about running. And from these, most importantly, I have learned some things about life.
You may never run 26.2 miles, but if you are reading these words, you are already in a marathon, the important one, called life. In all of your endeavors, as you run, remember that the second half is always downhill.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Joyful Home-Part 1
Many parents today have their hands thrown up in the air. Or they are pulling out their hair or they are pulling out the hair of their young charges. They seem completely in the dark when it comes to raising children to be cheerful and well disciplined. The frustration level seems to be increasing all the time. While I like to think that the situation is somewhat better in Christian Churches and Christian homes, it is amazing to me how little Christian parents know about raising children to be godly, obedient, respectful and cheerful. There was a time, not very long ago, when this was the cultural expectation for all children.
I will be posting a series on Biblical Childrearing that I call "The Joyful Home." These are talks that I have given within our church or delivered elsewhere as a conference. I hope these posts will be helpful to parents as they seek to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
The opening paragraph describes what many of us often see, exasperated parents and exasperated children. In fact, this state of affairs is now so common that it is seen as the norm. We often feel sorry for the mother of little Johnny who is having a coniption fit at Walmart, instead of blaming the mother and her abdicating husband and feeling sorry for Johnny.
If you are the mother or father of little Johnny, my purpose in these posts is not to make you feel bad. It is to give you hope and to begin to point you to the biblical answers and God’s promises to you and to your children.
The Church, your church, should be helping you along this path. It is one of the main responsibilities of the church and her ministers to hold out the promises of Jesus Christ to you and to your children. Because many pastors, elders and deacons have not believed these promises themselves and have lost their own children to the world, the flesh and the devil, they are no longer in a position to declare these promises to their congregations. Despite the failures of Christain leadership, God’s promises are to you and to your children.
The Lord does desire that your children grow up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and that they do lovingly and cheerfully embrace the kindness of God in Jesus Christ. But we must believe. We must believe in such a way that it affects the way that we live and move and have our being in Christ. Our belief must produce godly fruit. Here is the great part; all true belief does produce godly fruit. So, let us look at what God has in store for us as we raise our children to His glory.
I will be posting a series on Biblical Childrearing that I call "The Joyful Home." These are talks that I have given within our church or delivered elsewhere as a conference. I hope these posts will be helpful to parents as they seek to raise their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
The opening paragraph describes what many of us often see, exasperated parents and exasperated children. In fact, this state of affairs is now so common that it is seen as the norm. We often feel sorry for the mother of little Johnny who is having a coniption fit at Walmart, instead of blaming the mother and her abdicating husband and feeling sorry for Johnny.
If you are the mother or father of little Johnny, my purpose in these posts is not to make you feel bad. It is to give you hope and to begin to point you to the biblical answers and God’s promises to you and to your children.
The Church, your church, should be helping you along this path. It is one of the main responsibilities of the church and her ministers to hold out the promises of Jesus Christ to you and to your children. Because many pastors, elders and deacons have not believed these promises themselves and have lost their own children to the world, the flesh and the devil, they are no longer in a position to declare these promises to their congregations. Despite the failures of Christain leadership, God’s promises are to you and to your children.
The Lord does desire that your children grow up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and that they do lovingly and cheerfully embrace the kindness of God in Jesus Christ. But we must believe. We must believe in such a way that it affects the way that we live and move and have our being in Christ. Our belief must produce godly fruit. Here is the great part; all true belief does produce godly fruit. So, let us look at what God has in store for us as we raise our children to His glory.
Running for Your Life-Part 8
So, the real struggle set it. Every mile was a major victory. I mentioned that I was suffering ITBS but at the time, I had no idea what was going on. I tried to stop for a few seconds and stretch. I tried not stopping and just trying to keep the leg moving. But nothing much seemed to make a difference. The pain was there and continued to increase.
At this point there was emotion beginning to well up. It was emotion of failure. I had trained for the better part of a year for this all to watch it fritter away and so close to the goal. Each thought of quitting caused a wave of disappointment to attempt to make its way to the surface. With some great effort, I could still keep it down, keep it out of my mind but it would only take a little more pain to make the reality of the situation come crashing in. All the while, as these thoughts and emotions were wending their way through my system, my feet were also moving.
The finish line was getting closer. The thoughts of failure seemed to begin to diminish and they were being replaced by new thoughts of hope. Perhaps I was close enough to make it? I knew that if I could make it to the last mile that I would definitely finish. I could crawl a mile if I needed to. But I didn’t have to crawl. The old battered leg kept swinging around. Somehow the mile markers kept coming into vision, a surreal one at that.
Over the last few miles new emotions began to make their way to the surface and these were much harder to suppress. I was no longer emotional thinking about failing, about quitting. Quite the contrary, I felt quite confident that I was going to finish.
Visualization is a great athletic discipline. See yourself hit the ball. See yourself succeed. See yourself finish. That’s all well and good. However, it became a real problem for me the last three miles of the race. Every time I pictured myself finishing, and I could hardly keep myself from thinking about it, a great huge sob attempted to break through my chest. To this day, it was one of the strangest things that I have ever experienced.
No doubt the causes were several fold. I was exhausted. I had little control of my emotional or bodily functions. I had overcome the pain of injury and pressed through. I was about to accomplish something that many people only dream about. All of this was going on at the same time and it was simply overwhelming.
At this point there was emotion beginning to well up. It was emotion of failure. I had trained for the better part of a year for this all to watch it fritter away and so close to the goal. Each thought of quitting caused a wave of disappointment to attempt to make its way to the surface. With some great effort, I could still keep it down, keep it out of my mind but it would only take a little more pain to make the reality of the situation come crashing in. All the while, as these thoughts and emotions were wending their way through my system, my feet were also moving.
The finish line was getting closer. The thoughts of failure seemed to begin to diminish and they were being replaced by new thoughts of hope. Perhaps I was close enough to make it? I knew that if I could make it to the last mile that I would definitely finish. I could crawl a mile if I needed to. But I didn’t have to crawl. The old battered leg kept swinging around. Somehow the mile markers kept coming into vision, a surreal one at that.
Over the last few miles new emotions began to make their way to the surface and these were much harder to suppress. I was no longer emotional thinking about failing, about quitting. Quite the contrary, I felt quite confident that I was going to finish.
Visualization is a great athletic discipline. See yourself hit the ball. See yourself succeed. See yourself finish. That’s all well and good. However, it became a real problem for me the last three miles of the race. Every time I pictured myself finishing, and I could hardly keep myself from thinking about it, a great huge sob attempted to break through my chest. To this day, it was one of the strangest things that I have ever experienced.
No doubt the causes were several fold. I was exhausted. I had little control of my emotional or bodily functions. I had overcome the pain of injury and pressed through. I was about to accomplish something that many people only dream about. All of this was going on at the same time and it was simply overwhelming.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Running for Your Life-Part 7
When I run it is always a great relief to get to the half-way point. I am a fairly avid runner. I have completed three marathons and numerous ten to thirteen mile races. To the non-runner this may sound quite impressive. The idea of running 26.2 miles sounds, not only impossible, but perhaps even absurd. Most people imagine doing a marathon as the ultimate self punishment. And while that is true to some degree, it is also hard for a runner to convey to a non-runner the sheer euphoria and finishing the distance.
In my first marathon, several years ago, I was utterly unprepared for the emotions that accompanied the run. I am not an overly emotional person, so I was surprised that over the last four miles or so I was near an emotional meltdown.
The meltdown was nearest the surface every time the thought of finishing the race came to mind. The race had been quite easy for fourteen or fifteen miles. I had had a brief energy low around mile ten but that was taken care of with a couple of energy gels. But as far as hardship or pain, nothing much happened until around mile sixteen. At that point, I began to have some discomfort in my knee. Or was it my hip? Or the side of my leg? I couldn’t quite tell. The pain moved around from spot to spot. Then blisters formed on my toes and I forgot about the pain in my knee for a mile or two.
Around mile seventeen, my running partner helped me out by begging off a few aspirins from another runner. I think that helped some, at least mentally. But after a couple of more miles, it became clear to me that something was wrong and it was not going to get better. The pain in my knee, or my hip, or my leg, really all of the above, began to get worse. I was still able to run but my gate was beginning to suffer a bit and this just exacerbated the problem. By mile twenty-one I was beginning to have some serious trouble. My right leg was not working too well. Although I probably was not swinging it around to move it forward, that is what it felt like.
You runners have probably diagnosed my problem. It was illiotibial band syndrome (ITBS) and it was fairly severe. I was getting tired and my leg was not working. I needed to stop at aid stations, briefly, to get a drink but stopping was a problem. Actually, stopping wasn’t so bad. It was getting going again. It hurt. A lot. But once I got going, I could keep my leg swinging and keep my feet moving forward.
At mile twenty-two, I had a decision to make. My faithful running partner was being held back because of me. He was fairly fresh and feeling good. I was not in bad shape, as far as wind, or exhaustion but the leg was continuing to deteriorate. If I encouraged him to go on, maybe I wouldn’t finish. But if I held him back, he would not finish the way he had trained. He was reluctant to go. He wanted to stay and help me along but I insisted and he left me at mile twenty-two.
After running that far, you may think that four measly miles is a cinch. However, as many of you know, the thing that makes a marathon a marathon are those last few miles. Up to twenty, it is the realm of many men. After twenty, it gets interesting. The last few miles can be brutal, especially if you have an injury, or pain. I had both.
In my first marathon, several years ago, I was utterly unprepared for the emotions that accompanied the run. I am not an overly emotional person, so I was surprised that over the last four miles or so I was near an emotional meltdown.
The meltdown was nearest the surface every time the thought of finishing the race came to mind. The race had been quite easy for fourteen or fifteen miles. I had had a brief energy low around mile ten but that was taken care of with a couple of energy gels. But as far as hardship or pain, nothing much happened until around mile sixteen. At that point, I began to have some discomfort in my knee. Or was it my hip? Or the side of my leg? I couldn’t quite tell. The pain moved around from spot to spot. Then blisters formed on my toes and I forgot about the pain in my knee for a mile or two.
Around mile seventeen, my running partner helped me out by begging off a few aspirins from another runner. I think that helped some, at least mentally. But after a couple of more miles, it became clear to me that something was wrong and it was not going to get better. The pain in my knee, or my hip, or my leg, really all of the above, began to get worse. I was still able to run but my gate was beginning to suffer a bit and this just exacerbated the problem. By mile twenty-one I was beginning to have some serious trouble. My right leg was not working too well. Although I probably was not swinging it around to move it forward, that is what it felt like.
You runners have probably diagnosed my problem. It was illiotibial band syndrome (ITBS) and it was fairly severe. I was getting tired and my leg was not working. I needed to stop at aid stations, briefly, to get a drink but stopping was a problem. Actually, stopping wasn’t so bad. It was getting going again. It hurt. A lot. But once I got going, I could keep my leg swinging and keep my feet moving forward.
At mile twenty-two, I had a decision to make. My faithful running partner was being held back because of me. He was fairly fresh and feeling good. I was not in bad shape, as far as wind, or exhaustion but the leg was continuing to deteriorate. If I encouraged him to go on, maybe I wouldn’t finish. But if I held him back, he would not finish the way he had trained. He was reluctant to go. He wanted to stay and help me along but I insisted and he left me at mile twenty-two.
After running that far, you may think that four measly miles is a cinch. However, as many of you know, the thing that makes a marathon a marathon are those last few miles. Up to twenty, it is the realm of many men. After twenty, it gets interesting. The last few miles can be brutal, especially if you have an injury, or pain. I had both.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Running for Your Life-Part 6
Are these events artifices of life? Or are they, rather, snapshots of life? This is living and for many young men and women, the difference between life and death. Even as I pen these words, some of the magic of those days returns to me. So does the disappointment and the pain. By the grace of God, from these sports moments and others like them, I have learned more about living, than from any other single circumstance, event, or person.
That may seem strange to you if you are being raised in true wisdom, with godly and wise parents, in a good church, with many faithful teachers. But for many of us, the athletic field was our best teacher. Coaches became mentors and the practical lessons they taught us were driven home daily in practice and more acutely on Friday nights.
Later in life, as I began to learn more about Scripture and living out the wisdom found there, I realized the immense reservoir of practical application that I had learned growing up playing football, baseball and running. The things that I learned there were not about being there, in a game. They were about being here, in real life.
Now we come full circle. This book is not about sports, per se. It is not about running. Not really. It is about living, learning, hurting, persevering and finishing. Anybody can start the race. Just show up. It takes a man to finish.
That may seem strange to you if you are being raised in true wisdom, with godly and wise parents, in a good church, with many faithful teachers. But for many of us, the athletic field was our best teacher. Coaches became mentors and the practical lessons they taught us were driven home daily in practice and more acutely on Friday nights.
Later in life, as I began to learn more about Scripture and living out the wisdom found there, I realized the immense reservoir of practical application that I had learned growing up playing football, baseball and running. The things that I learned there were not about being there, in a game. They were about being here, in real life.
Now we come full circle. This book is not about sports, per se. It is not about running. Not really. It is about living, learning, hurting, persevering and finishing. Anybody can start the race. Just show up. It takes a man to finish.
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Communion Mediation-Dead Fathers
John 8:51-58 Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest, If a man keep my saying, he shall never taste of death. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? and the prophets are dead: whom makest thou thyself? Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God: Yet ye have not known him; but I know him: and if I should say, I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you: but I know him, and keep his saying. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am.
The point here is that Jesus is life and they cannot see it. Life is standing before them and they cannot see Him. Yes, Abraham died. Yes, the prophets died and they offered words of life. But, now, the very Word of Life is standing before them. These skeptics liked to honor their dead father’s tombs, precisely because they were dead.
Jesus calls us to another level of faith. We have a great heritage in the reformed faith. Our forefathers were blessed of God to see truth in the Scriptures that had become rarely taught or believed in the church. They also corrected many errors that had crept into the practice of the church.
Some of these errors were in the Lord’s Supper. They corrected misunderstandings and superstitions. We are thankful for that and want to uphold that heritage. But then a tradition grew up around the careful fencing of this table to keep out those who would profane it or to protect those who might eat and drink damnation to themselves. In some churches, even taking communion became a very rare practice, perhaps once a year. And this was defended as a high view of the sacraments. Is that not odd? Not taking the Lord’s Supper is defended as thinking highly of the Supper?
Obviously something got messed up along the way. Maybe it was logic class. What do they teach them in these schools? It was also defended as descending from our reformed fathers. But this is not true. Luther and Calvin had a very high sacramentology. Perhaps we disagree with Luther, somewhat, but he was trying to maintain a high view of communion with God, through Christ, in the Holy Spirit. But Calvin also had strong views about the very real presence of the body of Christ in the Supper.
My point in relating all of this is that we ought to see Jesus, the very Word of Life, when He is standing before us. He is here. He is in this meal. He offers us Life. In denying superstition and misunderstanding, we need to make sure that we do so in a way that is consistent with Jesus and not in building the tombs of our dead fathers. When we take and eat and drink, believing, we have the very promises. God is faithful.
The point here is that Jesus is life and they cannot see it. Life is standing before them and they cannot see Him. Yes, Abraham died. Yes, the prophets died and they offered words of life. But, now, the very Word of Life is standing before them. These skeptics liked to honor their dead father’s tombs, precisely because they were dead.
Jesus calls us to another level of faith. We have a great heritage in the reformed faith. Our forefathers were blessed of God to see truth in the Scriptures that had become rarely taught or believed in the church. They also corrected many errors that had crept into the practice of the church.
Some of these errors were in the Lord’s Supper. They corrected misunderstandings and superstitions. We are thankful for that and want to uphold that heritage. But then a tradition grew up around the careful fencing of this table to keep out those who would profane it or to protect those who might eat and drink damnation to themselves. In some churches, even taking communion became a very rare practice, perhaps once a year. And this was defended as a high view of the sacraments. Is that not odd? Not taking the Lord’s Supper is defended as thinking highly of the Supper?
Obviously something got messed up along the way. Maybe it was logic class. What do they teach them in these schools? It was also defended as descending from our reformed fathers. But this is not true. Luther and Calvin had a very high sacramentology. Perhaps we disagree with Luther, somewhat, but he was trying to maintain a high view of communion with God, through Christ, in the Holy Spirit. But Calvin also had strong views about the very real presence of the body of Christ in the Supper.
My point in relating all of this is that we ought to see Jesus, the very Word of Life, when He is standing before us. He is here. He is in this meal. He offers us Life. In denying superstition and misunderstanding, we need to make sure that we do so in a way that is consistent with Jesus and not in building the tombs of our dead fathers. When we take and eat and drink, believing, we have the very promises. God is faithful.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Running for Your Life-Part 5
In my youth, there were some of Springsteen’s Glory Days. And there were moments of intense failure. Many who never play sports cannot relate to this. They think sports are silly or a mere artifice of life, an escape from reality.
Tell that to a ninth grader that just put one out against the ace of the league. Tell that to a sixteen year old facing future major leaguer, Charles Kerfeld, a 6’6”, 245 lb., mountain of a boy, we called Magilla Guerilla. He threw a 95 mph fastball in American Legion ball. Scared? Don’t ask. Talk about waiving at fastball and bailing on a curve. Are you kidding?
Tell that to a sophomore, who earned a starting position, only to have his ankle blown out. That same boy crawled to the kitchen in the middle of the night for more aspirin. He was crying. But in order to understand those tears you have to understand the desire to play so bad that tears are an easy part of not getting to. It is not the physical pain. It is the failure to achieve what is set before you.
Tell that to a high school senior, after getting a bottom of the seventh game- winning hit off the best pitcher in the southern conference, for the second game in a row. Tell that to the same boy when the coach of the same team refuses his pitchers to throw him a strike in the playoffs in order to go to state. Tell that to the starting running back pulled from the game after two fumbles in the first quarter when his college football player brother had traveled down to see him play. Tell that to the entire team that beat Borah High for the first time in 26 years, to make it to the state championship. Tell that to the frustrated running back, beaten and bruised at halftime in a 35-0 debacle of a state championship. We went on to lose 55-13.
It was just a game. But it wasn’t. It was our lives. What is more, as I look back over time, over these events of my life, I realize that it wasn’t just a game, and it wasn’t just my life. All of those events are part of my life, now, twenty-five years later. They are part of who I am and they are part of who I will be twenty-five years from now.
Tell that to a ninth grader that just put one out against the ace of the league. Tell that to a sixteen year old facing future major leaguer, Charles Kerfeld, a 6’6”, 245 lb., mountain of a boy, we called Magilla Guerilla. He threw a 95 mph fastball in American Legion ball. Scared? Don’t ask. Talk about waiving at fastball and bailing on a curve. Are you kidding?
Tell that to a sophomore, who earned a starting position, only to have his ankle blown out. That same boy crawled to the kitchen in the middle of the night for more aspirin. He was crying. But in order to understand those tears you have to understand the desire to play so bad that tears are an easy part of not getting to. It is not the physical pain. It is the failure to achieve what is set before you.
Tell that to a high school senior, after getting a bottom of the seventh game- winning hit off the best pitcher in the southern conference, for the second game in a row. Tell that to the same boy when the coach of the same team refuses his pitchers to throw him a strike in the playoffs in order to go to state. Tell that to the starting running back pulled from the game after two fumbles in the first quarter when his college football player brother had traveled down to see him play. Tell that to the entire team that beat Borah High for the first time in 26 years, to make it to the state championship. Tell that to the frustrated running back, beaten and bruised at halftime in a 35-0 debacle of a state championship. We went on to lose 55-13.
It was just a game. But it wasn’t. It was our lives. What is more, as I look back over time, over these events of my life, I realize that it wasn’t just a game, and it wasn’t just my life. All of those events are part of my life, now, twenty-five years later. They are part of who I am and they are part of who I will be twenty-five years from now.
Exhortation-Imagine That
It is good that we are here this Sunday morning. It looks as if we have entered a fine building, one made by craftsman, skilled in beauty, a building prepared by the sweat and toil of many men’s hands. It is good to be the recipients of such hard labor. They worked and we get to enjoy. But looks can be deceiving.
We are not actually where you think we are. We are here but here is not the place you think it is. We make distinctions between holy and unholy, between sacred and secular, earthly and heavenly. And this is very understandable because the unholy world is such a contrast to our Holy God, the sacred nature of Christ and His kingdom is opposed to those who rule in Earth from Earth. But something strange is going on here this morning and you should know about it before we go very much further in our service. It is almost like science fiction. It is similar to imaginative literature, perhaps like a fairy tale, or even fantasy. For in those places of fancy, the fantastic often presents the real. Imagination and fancy can help us escape from our world, true, but they can also help us see things as they ought to be or even as they really are.
This is the something strange that is happening this morning. It happens every day, really, but on this day, the fantastic is even more pronounced, more magical than perhaps any other day. For, on this day, we expect fancy. We come to mystery. We experience that which seems outside the realm of experience. And we are told to hear God when men speak, we are told to believe that we are new men and women, we are told to eat Christ and drink His blood. This things seem unreal to us, mere metaphors of something other earthly, something waiting for us but not apprehended. But the surreal is not always unreal.
This is nothing less than the collision of heaven and earth but not a heaven and earth that are opposed to one another. It is more like lovers that are on a collision course with destiny. When they finally overcome separation, longing, waiting, and arrive at the altar together and then the marriage bed, the collision of two makes one and the one is more than the two, even though the two remain.
We are here, in a building made with hands inside a building made without hands. That is, the kingdom of God, which grows from a small rock to a great mountain that fills, not all of heaven, but all of earth. We are to see ourselves in heaven, not up there, away from earth, but heaven come here to invade the earth in a new and mighty creation. Heaven has swallowed earth, not to erase earth but to make earth a part of heaven. So, we are here in earth in heaven.
Let us remember, then, that we have come here, not to escape our humanity, not to imagine some other worldly existence but, rather, to become fully human. For Christ, as the first fruits of humanity, has brought us into Himself that we might partake of His glory. This means leaving the fleshly behind. Not leaving earth behind nor our bodies behind but leaving behind all things that rebel against the new humanity that we are in Christ.
It is fitting then that we confess our other worldliness, whether rebellion against Christ or even and unbiblical rejection of the world that Christ so loved and came to save.
We are not actually where you think we are. We are here but here is not the place you think it is. We make distinctions between holy and unholy, between sacred and secular, earthly and heavenly. And this is very understandable because the unholy world is such a contrast to our Holy God, the sacred nature of Christ and His kingdom is opposed to those who rule in Earth from Earth. But something strange is going on here this morning and you should know about it before we go very much further in our service. It is almost like science fiction. It is similar to imaginative literature, perhaps like a fairy tale, or even fantasy. For in those places of fancy, the fantastic often presents the real. Imagination and fancy can help us escape from our world, true, but they can also help us see things as they ought to be or even as they really are.
This is the something strange that is happening this morning. It happens every day, really, but on this day, the fantastic is even more pronounced, more magical than perhaps any other day. For, on this day, we expect fancy. We come to mystery. We experience that which seems outside the realm of experience. And we are told to hear God when men speak, we are told to believe that we are new men and women, we are told to eat Christ and drink His blood. This things seem unreal to us, mere metaphors of something other earthly, something waiting for us but not apprehended. But the surreal is not always unreal.
This is nothing less than the collision of heaven and earth but not a heaven and earth that are opposed to one another. It is more like lovers that are on a collision course with destiny. When they finally overcome separation, longing, waiting, and arrive at the altar together and then the marriage bed, the collision of two makes one and the one is more than the two, even though the two remain.
We are here, in a building made with hands inside a building made without hands. That is, the kingdom of God, which grows from a small rock to a great mountain that fills, not all of heaven, but all of earth. We are to see ourselves in heaven, not up there, away from earth, but heaven come here to invade the earth in a new and mighty creation. Heaven has swallowed earth, not to erase earth but to make earth a part of heaven. So, we are here in earth in heaven.
Let us remember, then, that we have come here, not to escape our humanity, not to imagine some other worldly existence but, rather, to become fully human. For Christ, as the first fruits of humanity, has brought us into Himself that we might partake of His glory. This means leaving the fleshly behind. Not leaving earth behind nor our bodies behind but leaving behind all things that rebel against the new humanity that we are in Christ.
It is fitting then that we confess our other worldliness, whether rebellion against Christ or even and unbiblical rejection of the world that Christ so loved and came to save.
Friday, March 23, 2007
Running for Your Life-Part 4
The preacher says that to get wisdom in the better than gold. Few men believe this today. As a result, many strive after wind and reap the whirlwind but the wise man gains wisdom and understanding. He profits from it far more than the man who gains the whole world and yet forfeits his own soul.
So, this book is not about running, really, or sports or the many and even sometimes hokey clichés that develop in all of these areas. This book is about life. For those of you who have done much living at all, you will realize that life is like a sporting event. A lot of ink has been spilled making the comparisons and many have benefited. I, myself, have benefited.
Growing up, most of what I learned that was worth learning, I learned on a sporting field. It was there that I learned about pain, perseverance, failure, success, and sorrow. It was there that I had some of my most exhilarating success and some of my most disappointing failures. The old thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. We say this, sometimes jokingly, but we mean it and it is more than just an old sports story that we tell. For many of us, the lessons learned on those fields or courts, are the very lessons that helped to carry us through times of immense tragedy. Or to help give us ballast and a reality check in a time of an extraordinary mountain top experience. We know that defeat is not necessarily failure. We know that that kind of disappointment feels better tomorrow. We know that the highest exhilaration must wake up tomorrow and go to work, or feed the dog, or empty the trash.
So, this book is not about running, really, or sports or the many and even sometimes hokey clichés that develop in all of these areas. This book is about life. For those of you who have done much living at all, you will realize that life is like a sporting event. A lot of ink has been spilled making the comparisons and many have benefited. I, myself, have benefited.
Growing up, most of what I learned that was worth learning, I learned on a sporting field. It was there that I learned about pain, perseverance, failure, success, and sorrow. It was there that I had some of my most exhilarating success and some of my most disappointing failures. The old thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. We say this, sometimes jokingly, but we mean it and it is more than just an old sports story that we tell. For many of us, the lessons learned on those fields or courts, are the very lessons that helped to carry us through times of immense tragedy. Or to help give us ballast and a reality check in a time of an extraordinary mountain top experience. We know that defeat is not necessarily failure. We know that that kind of disappointment feels better tomorrow. We know that the highest exhilaration must wake up tomorrow and go to work, or feed the dog, or empty the trash.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Running for Your Life-Part 3
In most Olympic sports, the number of athletes that can actually compete for the gold is quite small. Most of them are competing for third place, at best. Or perhaps in realizing their own pecking order, they are simply trying to beat another runner, or wrestler, or archer that usually beats them by a mere step, or point, or inch. And this happens, where most of the action happens, in the middle of the pack.
Nobody ever hears about these athletes. Some of them deserve their anonymity. They had the skill but not the will to be on the top podium. They had talent for gold but settled for showing up.
However, at the Olympic level, the majority of the middle of the packers or even the back of the packers, are over achievers. Their sweat, toil and sacrifice equals or exceeds that of those on the podium.
Most of us relate to them much better than the gold medallist. We do not possess the elite skills, whether in athletics or in any other area of life. We are not the genius innovator. We were not at the right place at the right time. We were not born into privilege. We find ourselves competing in life somewhere in the middle of the pack. But we have come to realize that the race is every bit as interesting and competitive here in the middle than there, at the front.
I suppose you are somewhat of an athlete or you probably would not even have read this far. I plan on using sports metaphors throughout this book. Many of the things that I have to say are already a part of the culture that we live in. This is why we have clichés. They are truisms. Sure, sometimes they are trite. They can be used inappropriately or by overuse, can be rendered meaningless. But clichés are clichés for a reason. They pack an intuitive wisdom that embodies the common understanding of a people. They enable us to relate to one another and say a great deal with few words.
The wise man is not so much the one who creates but the one who imitates. This is encouraging for us middle of the packers. We do not have to be a genius, the innovator, the enormously naturally gifted. We can just recognize who is, take his good idea, embrace the truth of it and learn and apply wisdom. Through imitation of excellence and wisdom, we can achieve far more than we think we can. This is the essence of true success; doing more than you thought yourself capable.
Nobody ever hears about these athletes. Some of them deserve their anonymity. They had the skill but not the will to be on the top podium. They had talent for gold but settled for showing up.
However, at the Olympic level, the majority of the middle of the packers or even the back of the packers, are over achievers. Their sweat, toil and sacrifice equals or exceeds that of those on the podium.
Most of us relate to them much better than the gold medallist. We do not possess the elite skills, whether in athletics or in any other area of life. We are not the genius innovator. We were not at the right place at the right time. We were not born into privilege. We find ourselves competing in life somewhere in the middle of the pack. But we have come to realize that the race is every bit as interesting and competitive here in the middle than there, at the front.
I suppose you are somewhat of an athlete or you probably would not even have read this far. I plan on using sports metaphors throughout this book. Many of the things that I have to say are already a part of the culture that we live in. This is why we have clichés. They are truisms. Sure, sometimes they are trite. They can be used inappropriately or by overuse, can be rendered meaningless. But clichés are clichés for a reason. They pack an intuitive wisdom that embodies the common understanding of a people. They enable us to relate to one another and say a great deal with few words.
The wise man is not so much the one who creates but the one who imitates. This is encouraging for us middle of the packers. We do not have to be a genius, the innovator, the enormously naturally gifted. We can just recognize who is, take his good idea, embrace the truth of it and learn and apply wisdom. Through imitation of excellence and wisdom, we can achieve far more than we think we can. This is the essence of true success; doing more than you thought yourself capable.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Running For Your Life-Part 2
Yet, this fact of being a mediocre sprinter is one of the great things about endurance running. Most people are naturally too slow to be serious sprinters. While you can improve a little with training, the fact is that you are born fast, or not. Not much you can do about it.
While this is somewhat true for world class distance runners, the same mechanics do not apply to distance running as apply for sprinting. It is true that very few people possess the natural ability to be an Olympic level miler, 10 K runner or marathoner. However, the tens of thousands of people who could never run, even a twelve second 100 meter, no matter how hard they trained to be able to do so, can break a 4 hour marathon or even a 3 ½ hour marathon, or even faster, with simple, consistent training. In marathoning, 3:30:00 seems to be a barrier for many people. In any given larger marathon race, there are a host of individuals attempting to break 3:30:00. From 3:30:00 down to 3:00:00, the barrier points seem to increase in size dramatically. Very good runners are needed to break 3:15:00. Only a fairly elite group can break 3:00:00. But at 3:30:00, there are many thousands of runners capable of achieving this worthwhile goal.
This opens up an enormous area of potential running success and accomplishment for an entire world of cross over athletes as well as Johnny come lately runners. Many marathoners are people that did not do athletics in high school. Many capable marathoners, those in the 3:30:00 range, are people like me, who never ran more than two continuous miles before the age of thirty. Some highly accomplished marathoners did not even run start running until after age forty.
Okay, so I said that this was not a book about running. I meant it. Really. In fact, my contention is that running is not even about running. Running is just an excuse to accomplish something. Granted, there are many different levels of accomplishment. For some, it is getting out of the office. For others, losing a little winter fodder. Others find an enormous challenge in pursuing that great goal of finishing a marathon. But all of these have something other than running as the end in mind. Running is a tool. Since this is the case, I hope that what I have to say here can transfer into other areas of life that are important to you. Perhaps your area of interest or hobby provides some of the same aspects of focused vision, escape, mental or physical health, or accomplishment that running does for me. I trust you will see that what I am talking about here is life.
While this is somewhat true for world class distance runners, the same mechanics do not apply to distance running as apply for sprinting. It is true that very few people possess the natural ability to be an Olympic level miler, 10 K runner or marathoner. However, the tens of thousands of people who could never run, even a twelve second 100 meter, no matter how hard they trained to be able to do so, can break a 4 hour marathon or even a 3 ½ hour marathon, or even faster, with simple, consistent training. In marathoning, 3:30:00 seems to be a barrier for many people. In any given larger marathon race, there are a host of individuals attempting to break 3:30:00. From 3:30:00 down to 3:00:00, the barrier points seem to increase in size dramatically. Very good runners are needed to break 3:15:00. Only a fairly elite group can break 3:00:00. But at 3:30:00, there are many thousands of runners capable of achieving this worthwhile goal.
This opens up an enormous area of potential running success and accomplishment for an entire world of cross over athletes as well as Johnny come lately runners. Many marathoners are people that did not do athletics in high school. Many capable marathoners, those in the 3:30:00 range, are people like me, who never ran more than two continuous miles before the age of thirty. Some highly accomplished marathoners did not even run start running until after age forty.
Okay, so I said that this was not a book about running. I meant it. Really. In fact, my contention is that running is not even about running. Running is just an excuse to accomplish something. Granted, there are many different levels of accomplishment. For some, it is getting out of the office. For others, losing a little winter fodder. Others find an enormous challenge in pursuing that great goal of finishing a marathon. But all of these have something other than running as the end in mind. Running is a tool. Since this is the case, I hope that what I have to say here can transfer into other areas of life that are important to you. Perhaps your area of interest or hobby provides some of the same aspects of focused vision, escape, mental or physical health, or accomplishment that running does for me. I trust you will see that what I am talking about here is life.
Write Wright Right
Just had the opportunity to hear three lectures from Bishop NT Wright. The talks were excellent in nearly every way. The issues for 'nearly' are significant but ought not to overshadow a truly wonderful speaker, scholar and churchman. The reason behind the issues for 'nearly' are obvious to me. He is English.
Wright has many supporters and a great number of detractors. Some of each were in force as he spoke at Roanoke College on Friday and again at the Church of the Holy Spirit on Saturday. Both talks are available for free download here and here.
Wright has so many obviously good things to say. I suppose the fact that some ultraconservatives think that he is a liberal and that some ultraliberals think that he is a bit of a fundy is a good sign. It is sometimes very telling to know who one's enemies are. I have read a bit of Wright, not a lot. Of what I have read, several articles and a couple of books, I have found nothing objectionable. However, my own beloved Pastor Douglas Wilson even feels compelled to right NT wrongs. I respect Wilson, a great deal, so I suspect there are some issues here and there with Wright. But overall, Bishop Wright is a great blessing to the church and perhaps the last hope, outside of heaven, for reformation and revival in England. Pray for him.
Wright was speaking on the Resurrection. For Wright, as for the Bible, the Resurrection is more than just a future hope at the end of time, or bringing it closer to home, it is more than simply a hope of heaven. The doctrine of the Resurrection is eschatology proper.
Many Christians get flustered when discussing eschatology. What view are we to have of the end times? Pre-mil, post-mil, a-mil, or pan-mil? You, know, pan-mil, right? Don't really care about the millenium, I just know that it will all pan out in the end.
Wright's closest millenial position would certainly be post-mil. He has a wonderfully optimistic view of the gospel. Jesus is Lord of all, heaven and earth. He is the first fruits of the Resurrection, not just for me, personally, but for all of humanity, and for all of the earth. Wright is closest to post-mil but he does a good job of not reading more into Scripture than is clearly there. He presents a very post-mil kind of view of the future on earth while at the same time admitting that the view is like looking up the road towards a fog. It is fairly clear here and will be much more clearer there but from hear it is not yet clear what is up there. I think this is better than some of the dogmatic post-millenial assertions that are sometimes made.
If New Creation in Resurrection is what the Bible teaches, and I conclude with Wright, that it does, then we are not allowed to have a pan-mil position. Our eschatology turns out to be, not an aside that I can take up or leave resting, but, in fact, the central issue of the New Testament, and for that matter, the entire Bible. Without getting eschatology right, we cannot fully understand what the New Testament is about. We might get some of the sub-themes correct but we will not get the overall broad story correct. And if this is the case, then we are very liable to also mess up on the sub-themes and applications. We may get them right but we also may not interpret them correctly in light of the broader view. Missing the forest for the trees. Identifying trees incorrectly because you do not know the habitat, the forest. That sort of thing.
My contention is that for the most part, Wright writes right. He is a great blessing to the church and is being dramatically used to advance proper thinking of Christ and His kingdom.
I was particularly encouraged to see about 1500 people turn up to hear him on Friday night and another 350 or so on Saturday morning. I knew very few of these people. Not very many of them were from my conservative circles. Many of them were Episcopalian or Lutheran. Is this not a wonderful work of God that so many people are hearing great teaching and gaining a fuller view of God's work in the world? I applaud Wright and pray blessings upon his head.
Wright has many supporters and a great number of detractors. Some of each were in force as he spoke at Roanoke College on Friday and again at the Church of the Holy Spirit on Saturday. Both talks are available for free download here and here.
Wright has so many obviously good things to say. I suppose the fact that some ultraconservatives think that he is a liberal and that some ultraliberals think that he is a bit of a fundy is a good sign. It is sometimes very telling to know who one's enemies are. I have read a bit of Wright, not a lot. Of what I have read, several articles and a couple of books, I have found nothing objectionable. However, my own beloved Pastor Douglas Wilson even feels compelled to right NT wrongs. I respect Wilson, a great deal, so I suspect there are some issues here and there with Wright. But overall, Bishop Wright is a great blessing to the church and perhaps the last hope, outside of heaven, for reformation and revival in England. Pray for him.
Wright was speaking on the Resurrection. For Wright, as for the Bible, the Resurrection is more than just a future hope at the end of time, or bringing it closer to home, it is more than simply a hope of heaven. The doctrine of the Resurrection is eschatology proper.
Many Christians get flustered when discussing eschatology. What view are we to have of the end times? Pre-mil, post-mil, a-mil, or pan-mil? You, know, pan-mil, right? Don't really care about the millenium, I just know that it will all pan out in the end.
Wright's closest millenial position would certainly be post-mil. He has a wonderfully optimistic view of the gospel. Jesus is Lord of all, heaven and earth. He is the first fruits of the Resurrection, not just for me, personally, but for all of humanity, and for all of the earth. Wright is closest to post-mil but he does a good job of not reading more into Scripture than is clearly there. He presents a very post-mil kind of view of the future on earth while at the same time admitting that the view is like looking up the road towards a fog. It is fairly clear here and will be much more clearer there but from hear it is not yet clear what is up there. I think this is better than some of the dogmatic post-millenial assertions that are sometimes made.
If New Creation in Resurrection is what the Bible teaches, and I conclude with Wright, that it does, then we are not allowed to have a pan-mil position. Our eschatology turns out to be, not an aside that I can take up or leave resting, but, in fact, the central issue of the New Testament, and for that matter, the entire Bible. Without getting eschatology right, we cannot fully understand what the New Testament is about. We might get some of the sub-themes correct but we will not get the overall broad story correct. And if this is the case, then we are very liable to also mess up on the sub-themes and applications. We may get them right but we also may not interpret them correctly in light of the broader view. Missing the forest for the trees. Identifying trees incorrectly because you do not know the habitat, the forest. That sort of thing.
My contention is that for the most part, Wright writes right. He is a great blessing to the church and is being dramatically used to advance proper thinking of Christ and His kingdom.
I was particularly encouraged to see about 1500 people turn up to hear him on Friday night and another 350 or so on Saturday morning. I knew very few of these people. Not very many of them were from my conservative circles. Many of them were Episcopalian or Lutheran. Is this not a wonderful work of God that so many people are hearing great teaching and gaining a fuller view of God's work in the world? I applaud Wright and pray blessings upon his head.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Running For Your Life-Part 1
Starting is easy. Everybody can do it. All you have to do is show up. The gun goes off and away you go. In a running race, the start is particularly invigorating. You are surrounded by a mass of healthy bodies who are fresh and excited.
Almost everyone starts off too quickly. It usually only takes a few hundred yards to realize this fact. You are in good shape but the pace is beyond what you have trained for. Your heart rate powers up too quickly and you begin breathing hard.
In a short race, say a 5K, this is not too big of an issue. You planned on pushing it harder than your long runs anyway and expected to be out of breath. Anybody can suck gas for 20-25 minutes. So you push through.
But if your race is a marathon and you are out of breath at the half-mile mark, the thought can be daunting, even overwhelming. Slow down. Pace is key. But don’t sandbag. Run what you have trained for. You have got over three and half hours of running to go. So, catch your breath. Make it half way. It’s all down hill from there. Down hill. On the back side. Going home. These are things that help you make it through the pain of the harder part. Sometimes it is merely tricking yourself that the first part was hardest. Maybe it was. Probably it wasn’t. But now you know you can make it and every step brings you one step closer to home. So, you keep it up and you finish.
This book is not really about running. Of course, running is the theme. Running is the trainer. Running is a tool. Stay with me and you will see that this book is about life. As is running or whatever endeavor you have found that makes you, not only who you are, but enables you to press beyond the exigencies of every day living, to that something beyond which gives meaning and joy to the mundane.
I picked up endurance running almost by accident. In high school track, I was a sprinter. A hard workout for me was five three hundred meter sprints at top speed. Three quarters around the track in thirty-nine seconds. Repeat it five times. Puke your guts out. I thought it was hard then but now, as I look back, we had it pretty easy.
Even then, we sprinters always shuddered at the workouts of the one and two milers. Their speed days consisted of twelve four hundred meter sprints. Their sprints were not exactly the same as our sprints but they ran them hard and they ran a lot of them. On their distance days, they would go out and run six or seven miles. This seemed completely absurd to us sprinters.
We could not comprehend running that far. Not ever. Not under any circumstances.
In winter track, the coaches would haul us out to the country for a little conditioning. Our distance runners would do four miles and the sprinters would usually run fartleks. This consisted of walking from one telephone pole to the next, then jogging to the next one, then a full sprint to the next one. We never did this for more than two miles. Even when we did slow distance running, the sprinter’s distance was just two miles.
The first time I ran two miles without stopping, I thought I had accomplished a tremendous feat. It seemed a very long distance and I was surprised that I could do it. My brother, our top sprinter, was impressed. When it came to distance, he ran slowly, slowly, so impressing him that way was fairly easy. Alas, I had the curse of mediocrity. Too slow to compete in the 100. Too fast to compete in the mile. But I am not alone. Ninety-five percent of the athletes on our track team were in the same boat. They were not the fastest sprinters. They were not the great endurance runners. They were just filler, like me. Good for training and perhaps a relay team but would never be the excellent individual runner.
Almost everyone starts off too quickly. It usually only takes a few hundred yards to realize this fact. You are in good shape but the pace is beyond what you have trained for. Your heart rate powers up too quickly and you begin breathing hard.
In a short race, say a 5K, this is not too big of an issue. You planned on pushing it harder than your long runs anyway and expected to be out of breath. Anybody can suck gas for 20-25 minutes. So you push through.
But if your race is a marathon and you are out of breath at the half-mile mark, the thought can be daunting, even overwhelming. Slow down. Pace is key. But don’t sandbag. Run what you have trained for. You have got over three and half hours of running to go. So, catch your breath. Make it half way. It’s all down hill from there. Down hill. On the back side. Going home. These are things that help you make it through the pain of the harder part. Sometimes it is merely tricking yourself that the first part was hardest. Maybe it was. Probably it wasn’t. But now you know you can make it and every step brings you one step closer to home. So, you keep it up and you finish.
This book is not really about running. Of course, running is the theme. Running is the trainer. Running is a tool. Stay with me and you will see that this book is about life. As is running or whatever endeavor you have found that makes you, not only who you are, but enables you to press beyond the exigencies of every day living, to that something beyond which gives meaning and joy to the mundane.
I picked up endurance running almost by accident. In high school track, I was a sprinter. A hard workout for me was five three hundred meter sprints at top speed. Three quarters around the track in thirty-nine seconds. Repeat it five times. Puke your guts out. I thought it was hard then but now, as I look back, we had it pretty easy.
Even then, we sprinters always shuddered at the workouts of the one and two milers. Their speed days consisted of twelve four hundred meter sprints. Their sprints were not exactly the same as our sprints but they ran them hard and they ran a lot of them. On their distance days, they would go out and run six or seven miles. This seemed completely absurd to us sprinters.
We could not comprehend running that far. Not ever. Not under any circumstances.
In winter track, the coaches would haul us out to the country for a little conditioning. Our distance runners would do four miles and the sprinters would usually run fartleks. This consisted of walking from one telephone pole to the next, then jogging to the next one, then a full sprint to the next one. We never did this for more than two miles. Even when we did slow distance running, the sprinter’s distance was just two miles.
The first time I ran two miles without stopping, I thought I had accomplished a tremendous feat. It seemed a very long distance and I was surprised that I could do it. My brother, our top sprinter, was impressed. When it came to distance, he ran slowly, slowly, so impressing him that way was fairly easy. Alas, I had the curse of mediocrity. Too slow to compete in the 100. Too fast to compete in the mile. But I am not alone. Ninety-five percent of the athletes on our track team were in the same boat. They were not the fastest sprinters. They were not the great endurance runners. They were just filler, like me. Good for training and perhaps a relay team but would never be the excellent individual runner.
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