Imperishable Inheritance

One thing I have learned in my short Christian life is that I have lived a short Christian life. By that, I mean I'm learning the value of endurance in this endeavor. I never thought I would enter into a stage of passivity and indifference towards my spirituality, but I have found myself in that very state.

It is especially convicting that we are explicitly told to "lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith" (Heb 12:1-2). I believe my approach towards the Christian race was more of a "sprint" then a "marathon." I went at a pace that a short-distance runner trains at, and as a result running a marathon was a completely different endeavor that I wasn't trained to run in. I've had to learn that living by faith, over a long period of time, is more then I could've imagined.

I have however come to recognize certain measures of grace which can encourage me in this race. I continue to learn a lot from those that have gone before us (as the author to the Hebrews so points out in the previous chapter). As I hear more and more of people that live the Christian life day in and day out for decades I'm encouraged that it can be done. Through trial, heartache, discouragement, and the like they have persevered by the grace of God to give testimony of the Gospel to others. Those people that I look to often become disciplers to show me the way of Christian living. There is no doubt that the model of discipleship is intrinsically bound to sanctification. Without other men helping me I don't know where I'd be.

I have also come to appreciate the race analogy in the way that Paul describes to the Corinthians:

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified. (1 Cor 9:24-27)

I have come to appreciate that Paul stresses that running the race involves a prize and they must discipline themselves to complete the race. The longer I live in Christ I see the value in disciplines. How are we to finish a spiritual race entangled with battles if we are not disciplined in our relationship with Christ? From reading the Scriptures, to prayer, and fellowship with believers, it becomes an integral and necessary part of the means to finish the race.

Paul also notes that in disciplining himself and running the race so as to win he will not give a bad account of the Gospel. It is one thing I have become discouraged by is that I don't want to serve as a bad testimony to the grace of God provided in the Gospel. If I myself am not running with fervor and passion then why should I expect anyone else to listen to what I say? I wouldn't listen to an overweight, lazy person on marathon running advice, and nor would anyone else look to someone caught in spiritual apathy to join the race he runs.

I must remember that the Christian life isn't meant to be a non-stop ride of emotion and drastic events. Instead, the Christian life is meant to be steady, disciplined, and long-suffering. But by the grace of God and the example of Christ might we all run the race as to win an imperishable prize.