From The Archives: Running Like Children

This is a post from a couple of years ago.

I just finished a book called  Born To Run.  It’s a true story about a guy who developed a pain in his foot.  His search for a cure led him to the Tarahamura Indians in Mexico.  These Indians will run incredible distances in breechcloth and sandals fueled by a concoction they call iskiate.  I’m sure that if analyzed it would show up on all endurance sports’ banned substance lists.

One of the things that stood out to me was what a college running coach discovered.  This gentleman, upon watching the Tarahmurans run, discovered their true secret.  He found out how and why they are able to run incredible distances day after day.  It isn’t just their lifestyle.  It isn’t just their diet of iskiate.  What he realized was that they ran with a childlike joy.

Think about that for a minute.  Think back to when you were a child.  Did anyone ever tell to get to running?  Probably not.  More than likely you were told to slow down or quit running in the house.  When you were a kid you ran.  Why?  Because you loved to run.  You were free.  When I went to my grandma’s house, I would have her time me as I ran around the house.  Why?  Because I loved to run fast around her house.  I ran for no other reason than that.

This made me think of what Jesus said when he said that to enter the kingdom of heaven one needed to become like children.  How would you approach Jesus?  Most of us would slink to Him.  How would a child?  A child would run and jump into his arms, just like your children probably have done to you or you did to your parents.

At the end of 1 John 2, John says that we should approach Him confidently.  Why?  Because we are His children.  What does  that mean?  I think it means running to him as hard as possible, chasing Him around the house, jumping, squealing with exuberant joy.  Just like you used to run as child, running like children to the Savior and to the Father.

If you are a follower of Jesus, how do you think you should approach Jesus?  Do you run to Him with childlike joy?

4 Spiritual Thoughts I Learn From Running

I’ve been a runner all of my life.  However, I’ve recently had a period of my life where I haven’t been running.  I’m trying to rectify that.  These four thoughts have come to mind lately that parallel between my running and my spiritual life.

Starting Is The Hardest Part

Getting back into a running program is difficult.  It is hard physically.  It may be hard mentally.  Life adjustments have to be made.  Time adjustments have to be made.

It’s the same thing spiritually.  It can be difficult.  You may have to get earlier to read your Bible and pray.  You may give up some things you have been doing.  You may add other things like going to a small group.  Regardless, it’s a change to your life and it can be difficult to start.

The More I Run, The More I Can Run

The great thing is that the more you run, the more you can run.  You can’t jump right back into running a half marathon or marathon after a lengthy layoff.  You have to build up.  The more you run over several days, the longer you will be able to run.  Eventually, your long runs begin to grow longer.

Spiritually, you may be able to read a chapter or two of your Bible.  Your prayers may be very short.  However, the more you read, the hungrier you become to read more.  The more you pray, the richer your prayer life become.

Extra Baggage Slows You Down

After a running layoff, it’s inevitable that my weight has changed.  I haven’t been exercising, so my weight has crept up.  That slows me down and keeps me running at my normal pace.

You carry extra baggage after a spiritual layoff too.  You may have attitudes that you need to be rid of.  There may be sin in your life.   Set aside those besetting sins and those things that encumber you. Getting back into a “spiritual program” will help you rid yourself of these like a running program will help lower your weight.

It’s A Daily Grind

Here’s the thing.  You can’t run one day, then one day again next week and expect to see results.  That won’t help you train for a marathon or help you lose weight.  It takes a daily grind.  I don’t mean that in a negative way.  I love running.  But it takes a daily commitment to it to see results.

Same thing in your spiritual life.  It takes that daily grind.  Get up.  Read your Bible.  Pray.  Spend time in fellowship.  Worship.  It takes a daily commitment to these things to get your spiritual life back on track.

What would you add to these?  What have you learned from something in your life that parallels your spiritual life?

 

How To Beat The Resistance

When you woke up this morning, you met the Resistance.

Maybe it convinced you to stay inside instead of going outside and running.

Perhaps it told you to leave your Bible laying there instead of picking it up.

It could have told you anything to just slow you down, to keep you where you are instead of moving forward.

How do you beat it?

You begin.

You create movement.

You create momentum.

You go outside and run, even if you only run 100 yards.

You open your Bible and read, even if it’s only a couple of verses.

Something that is in motion tends to stay in motion.

The hardest part is getting started.  A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.  That first step is the hardest.  Don’t think about the thousand miles ahead of you.  Think about that single step it takes to get started.  Do you know how to eat an elephant?  One bite at a time.

It’s time to beat the Resistance.

Will you do it today?

Do you need to beat the Resistance?

Waiting On The Lord

My friend, Michael D Perkins, is now typing his blog posts and dripping Jesus instead of handwriting them.  This is the post he wrote yesterday about waiting for the Lord.  I commented on his post and want to expand a little bit on what I said over there.

Those who wait on the Lord will renew their strength.

What Isaiah doesn’t say is that they sit around waiting for strength to just happen.  How do you get stronger in your physical life?  You work at it.  It doesn’t just happen.  Isaiah is not saying that we just passively wait for the Lord to make us stronger.

They will mount up with wings like eagles.

They don’t just sit around and wait for an eagle to come by so they can fly.  They are like an eagle with powerful wings for soaring high.  They are attempting flight in the Lord’s strength.

They will run and not get tired.

How does that happen?  They train.  They run daily.  Their endurance builds.  They are actively working for the Lord so that they when it’s time to run for Him, they are ready and will not grow tired and weary for the Lord He has prepared them to do.

They will walk and not become weary.

No one in their right mind would attempt to walk the Appalachian Trail without preparing beforehand.  They would begin with some smaller hikes.  They would hike for two or three days at a time.  Then they might try a few week-long hikes.  They would prepare their packs so that they would not carry any more weight than necessary.

Waiting on the Lord is not a passive activity.  It is very active.  It is active preparation so that when the Lord presents the opportunities to do His work, you are ready.

Do you wait on the Lord?

Twitterific Thursday Two-Fer Edition: The Bottom 10

It’s Twitterfic Thursday, where I write something in 14o words, more or less.  This is a special year-end Two-fer edition.  T hat’s right.  You get a double dose of Twitterific Thursday today.  However, this one gets nowhere near 140 words.

I don’t know about you, but I have seen a ton of top ten lists for the year.  From songs to movies to TV shows, I think I have seen my fair share.  Several of my blogging brothers and sisters have run their Top 10 lists or repeated their top posts.  I want to go the other way.  Here are my least viewed posts.  They need more love and I learned more from them than I did those that did well.

10.  Working On A Building.  After reading this one, I understand why it comes in at the 10th least viewed of the year.

9.  Back To The Basics.  This was an ill-fated attempt at a series from when I was teaching Sunday school.  Booooorrrriinnng.  Who wants a rerun of my Sunday school lessons?  Certainly not me.  That’s why this didn’t last.

8.  Failure Isn’t Final.  I actually like this one.  This was in the early days of Deuceology.  Please read this one and give it some action.

7.  No Beast Of Burden.  Another that I like.  From July, before anyone was really reading.

6.  Free Live Music.  This one was from the first month of the blog.  It was also my first with a picture.  I got the idea while I was running.

5.  Anchors For Dreams.  I think this one was kind of stupid.

4.  140 Words (or less) About Focus.  One of the early Twitterific Thursday posts, before I added the More to the Less.

3.  What Are You Passionate About?  I was trying to find out what my voice is and what I’m passionate about.  I also thought that I was the next Jon Acuff.

2.  Running Like Children.  Again, one of my earlier posts.  I had no idea what I was wanting to write about at this point.

And the least viewed post in 2011 here at the Deuceology blog……

1.  Godliness Next To Patriotism.  What in the world was I trying to say here?

Pick one or pick all ten.  Read them.  Hopefully I have improved over the past seven months.  Hopefully, 2012 will be even better.  Thanks for hanging in there with me and for your patience.

Spiritual Sleep Apnea

I’m a runner.  I have been all of my life.  When I was a little guy, I would have my grandma time me as I ran around her house.  When I played football, my favorite part of practice was when we ran “to the pole and back”.  Same goes for baseball.  I loved warming up by running around the field.

I ran my first 5K when I was in the sixth grade.  When I was in seventh grade, my middle school formed a track team.  I signed up and ran track through high school, as well as cross-country.

Since high school I’ve run off and on depending on the season of life that I’m facing.  The bottom line is that I consider myself a runner.

There’s just one problem.  I haven’t really wanted to run much over the last year.  I ran for a few weeks a few months ago, but I just lacked the desire to continue.  I questioned why I seemed to suddenly not care about something I’ve loved all of my life.  I think I figured it out.

I have sleep apnea.  I was diagnosed about a month ago.  Jan had been concerned about me for some time.  I went to a sleep center and had a sleep study conducted.  I was found to have sever sleep apnea.  The reason I didn’t have much energy and felt the way I did was discovered.  I believe this is the reason I don’t want to run much anymore.  I just don’t feel like it.  I’m now being treated with a contraption like in the picture above and I can feel the desire to run coming back.  I feel better.

I wonder if what I’ve gone through physically lately is much like what we go through spiritually sometimes?

How often, once we ar born again, are we on fire.  Our love for the Lord and His church are strong.  We can’t get enough His word.  We love to hear all sorts of preaching.  We read our bibles daily.  Our prayer life is vibrant.  We’re active in serving in our local church.

Then something happens.  Slowly our desire fades.  We just go through the motions.  Things change.

What happened?

If you know anything about sleep apnea, it’s caused by an obstruction to the airways causing you to have difficulty breathing.  You wake up (though usually not consciously) several times a night gasping for air.

Is that what happens to many of us spiritually?  Do we develop spiritual sleep apnea?  Is there an obstruction preventing us from breathing the deep things of God?  Does this drain our spiritual energy to the point where we don’t have the desire for anything else to serving and loving God?

What’s the solution?

I don’t know of a mask we can wear that will take care of this.  But I do believe that there are two places that we need to start.  I believe that we need to start with prayer.  We need to just begin praying.  Pray about the situation.  Pray about your life.  Pray about everything.  Start your day in prayer.  End your day in prayer.  Simply pray.

The other thing is simple as well.  Read the Bible.  Read it daily.  Read it in the morning.  Read it in the evening.  Think about what  you’ve read.  Mull it over.  Chew on it in your mind.  Meditate on it.

I believe that those are the two best ways to treat spiritual sleep apnea.  I believe that praying and reading God’s word will restore the spiritual energy that is being sapped by obstructions in our life.

Have you eve had a period in your life where you have had “spiritual sleep apnea”?

Running Like Children

I just finished a book called  Born To Run.  It’s a true story about a guy who developed a pain in his foot.  His search for a cure led him to the Tarahamura Indians in Mexico.  These Indians will run incredible distances in breechcloth and sandals fueled by a concoction they call iskiate.  I’m sure that if analyzed it would show up on all endurance sports’ banned substance lists.

I’m not finished with the book yet, but one of the things that stood out to me was what a college running coach discovered.  This gentleman, upon watching the Tarahmurans run discovered their true secret.  He found out how and why they are able to run incredible distances day after day.  It isn’t just their lifestyle.  It isn’t just their diet of iskiate.  What he realized was that they ran with a childlike joy.

Think about that for a minute.  Think back to when you were a child.  Did anyone ever tell to get to running?  Probably not.  More than likely you were told to slow down or quit running in the house.  When you were a kid you ran.  Why?  Because you loved to run.  You were free.  When I went to my grandma’s house, I would have her time me as I ran around the house.  Why?  Because I loved to run fast around her house.  I ran for no other reason than that.

This made me think of what Jesus said when he said that to enter the kingdom of heaven one needed to become like children.  How would you approach Jesus?  Most of us would slink to Him.  How would a child?  A child would run and jump into his arms, just like your children probably have done to you or you did to your parents.

At the end of 1 John 2, John says that we should approach Him confidently.  Why?  Because we are His children.  What does  that mean?  I think it means running to him as hard as possible, chasing Him around the house, jumping, squealing with exuberant joy.  Just like you used to run as child, running like children to the Savior and to the Father.

If you are a follower of Jesus, how do you think you should approach Jesus?  Do you run to Him with childlike joy?

140 Words (or less) About Running

It’s Twitter-like Thursday, where I write 14o words or less about a subject.

I am a runner.  If I didn’t know better, I would say that I came out of the womb running.  I have been a runner all of my life.  I hope that I go out running.  How much do I love running?  Let me count the ways:

1.  I love to read magazines about running.

2.  I love to read books about running.

3.  I love to watch running on TV, whether it’s track meets or marathons.

4.  I love to watch movies about running.

5.  I tweet about running.

6.  I love to go to cross-country meets, track meets and road races just to watch.

What is something that  you love that you would love to write approximately 140 words about?