Thought for the week - 7 July 2008

Running the Race

Wimbledon, European Football, Test Cricket and much more have all been enjoyed already this summer and still to come are the Beijing Olympics. Athletes competing at the highest level of their sport show such commitment, discipline, dedication and fitness, maybe we stand back and admire their abilities and wish we were a little younger or fitter or more capable to give it a go ourselves.

The same dedication is just as necessary in each of our lives in whatever we do. For, just as an athlete is dedicated and focused on what they are doing in order to ‘win’, so too we need focus and dedication in our daily lives. Whether bringing up our family or in our work or in our play we need the same commitment. An athlete also needs to enjoy his sport and have their supporters cheering them on, if not they are not going to get very far. We need those around us who love us giving us that encouragement.

This is also true of our spiritual lives. St. Paul in his writings showed an interest in the sports of his day. On a number of occasions he uses sport as a way of illustrating the way we should live our lives as Christians, one such example is given in his first letter to the Corinthian Church

‘Do you not know that in a race the runners all compete, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win it. Athletes exercise self-control in all things; they do it to receive a perishable garland, but we an imperishable one. So I do not run aimlessly, nor do I box as though beating the air; but I punish my body and enslave it, so that after proclaiming to others I myself should not be disqualified’.

Paul could see the need for discipline and commitment in his life as a follower of Christ and likened it to an athlete’s.  We may not be

St Paul, but, every day we live our life and ‘run’ the race of life, it is not without its ultimate destiny, not without purpose or reward. We are called to look forward to the finish line and see Jesus; we need not be overwhelmed by the problems and difficulties we face at our side but rather to the goal God has for us in Jesus Christ.

So as we look upon those athletes let us think about our own spiritual fitness and commit ourselves to the discipline of being disciples of Christ and run the race of life with him by our side.

God Bless.

Revd David Sherwin

Rural Dean