First, I have a strong will to win. I like to win... like to be a 'winner'. I've played competetive sports my entire life. Loved the competetion. Thrived on it, on winning, and beating the other guy.
Then a good friend asked me to run a half-marathon with him. After much hesitation (did I mention I didn't like running) I accepted. Come to find out, I love running. Here's why:
- Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. 26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. -1Corinthians 9:24-29
- That strong will to win is more that just a will to win. Really it's just a strong will. Sometimes that equals stubborness ("eg. "strong willed child"), but other times its a great advantage. It's especially advantageous when purposeful. It allows me to practice discipline and perseverence.
- Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. 18 They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. 19 They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. 20 But that is not the way you learned Christ!— 21 assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, 22 to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, 24 and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. - Ephesians 4:17-24
- In running, there is no "other guy". No one to beat, and in these races no first prize. The opponent is me. Last year's me. Yesterday's me. A number of years ago I chose a different way to live. I placed my life in the hands of our Lord, Jesus. Asked him for forgiveness, renewal, and a new direction. I put an end to the old me and became a new creation in Him. Running reminds me of that. My distance or time or pace from yesterday or last month or last year are the old me. Today is a new creation. Possibilites are endless.
