Monday, August 3rd

Monday, August 3

Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

A long time ago I spent several years coaching basketball at Taylor University in Indiana. The head coach at the time was known for his particularly grueling preseason conditioning program. It lasted for about four weeks and consisted of lots and lots of running; sprints, distance runs, combinations of sprints and distance runs, then more sprints; you get the picture.

The most dreaded day of the whole month was the day the players had to do the “12 minute run.” Now “12 minute run” sounds rather innocuous, but, in reality, it is sheer torture. Here’s how it works. The athletes all line up on a track; the coach blows the whistle and they all run as far and as fast as they can for 12 minutes.

It’s brutal.

One year we had a guy try out for the team who had played intramural basketball for two years and then had decided to try out for the men’s college team. He was about 6’4 and a pretty good athlete as I remember. Early in the conditioning program he impressed the head coach with his speed for a bigger guy. Soon we noticed he had a tendency to run fast only when he was sure we were watching; but when he was on the far side of the track and though he was out of view he would slow down considerably.

The head coach preached giving your best effort all the time and so not only did he notice the loafing on the back side of the track, he was somewhat annoyed by it.

Well the day of the “12 minute run” finally came. The guys all lined up and the coach blew his whistle and off they went.

The kid in question took off like a shot and was with the leaders for the first lap. But part way into the second lap we noticed he was losing ground. By about five minutes into the run he was being lapped by the faster guys. The thing about a “12 minute run” is that you have nowhere to hide! By about the 7th minute the poor guy had slowed nearly to a painful looking jog. Finally at about the 8 minute mark he stopped running altogether.
Now you need to know that the head coach’s rule was, “If you stop running, you cut yourself from the team.” So we watched as the young fellow stopped running, turned and started the long slow walk across the track to where I was standing with the head coach. As we waited we wondered aloud what he would say when he arrived.

When he finally got to where we were standing he looked at us and, still trying to catch his breath, said, “Coach, I’ve been praying about this a lot lately, and I just don’t have any peace about playing ball this year.”

The head coach looked back at him and said in his steely coach voice, “Son, the middle of a 12 minute run is no place to be looking for peace.” That young man didn’t play basketball that season.

In the New Testament the Christian life is sometimes pictured as a race.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us...
 
I love this text! I love it not just because it carries obvious athletic overtones; a race with a crowd cheering the athletes on; but because Paul presents the journey of faith as requiring endurance.

I think this is what that young man so long ago failed to understand. The “12 minute run” wasn’t about how fast he could run or about how he compared to the other guys running with him; it was about endurance. All he had to do was set a pace and keep with it! Even if he finished last, he would have finished and he might have made that team.

But how do we endure? How do we keep running when everything in us tells us to quit? Paul concludes his thoughts on endurance with this:

...let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

See it? Jesus endured the cross because of the “joy set before him.” That joy was the pleasure and reward of God the Father.

That’s also why we run this race called faith!

Pastor Brian Coffey