Pastor Dana’s blog

On Sunday night I met with a bunch of triathletes from the area at a local eatery.  I had been planning on going to their monthly social since March.  It would be a great opportunity to meet other triathletes, ask questions, find support, etc.  March came and went without going to the social.  In April I was excited to be able to go since it was the day after my first (and to date only) triathlon.  I could go as one of them, a triathlete.  But Sunday evening rolled around and I didn’t go.  May came and went with the same determination to go and the same holding back.  So the other night I was convinced I needed to be there.  I had been looking forward to this for months, I wanted to meet these folks, but about 4:00 in the afternoon I started hesitating again.  Now most of you would not characterize me as a shy person, or one who is bashful, but that is exactly what was happening.  I was afraid.  What was I afraid of?  Acceptance.  I would be in the midst of athletes with great accomplishments, people who had trained for years, who run dozens of miles a week, bike hundreds and swim for hours and hours.  What would they think of me?  I’m not really one of them.  I was afraid?  But I mustered up the courage (actually I asked God for it so I can’t take the credit) and went, and I found a welcoming group of people that wanted to know how I got interested in the very thing they love to do.  I wasn’t judged, I was accepted.

I wonder how many people feel the way I did when they want to start coming to a church.  I ask you to think about that one a bit.  Do people feel they won’t measure up to God, or do they just feel they won’t measure up to us?  Do they worry about being judged?  Do they worry about being accepted for who they are and where they are at?

This group of triathletes known as the Peoria Triathlon Club were warm and friendly and very welcoming to me.  Did I still feel a bit out of my element, sure, but not because of the people there, they did everything possible to make me feel at home among them, offering helpful pointers on an upcoming race in Canton and inviting me to bring Cathy to the next social. 

Thank you to the Peoria Trithlon Club for making me feel welcome.

Triathlon

I am a triathlete.  I am a TRIATHLETE!!! 

Boy, does it feel good to finally be able to say that.  It’s official.  And it ranks right up there, but not above, “I am a Husband”, “I am a Father”, and the ultimate, “I am a Christian”.  After 4 months of training I can finally say it.  I am a Triathlete.

Now mind you, I am not a good triathlete, but I finished my first race and that means I can finally call myself a triathlete.  I never felt right calling myself that while I was training.  I had never completed a race, I had never completed the distance of all three events on the same day; I was just a guy who was swimming, biking and running every week.  To truly call yourself a triathlete, or an athlete for that matter you need to compete.  Surely you need to train to compete, but if we never enter the arena, never enter the contest, then what are we training for.  I bought the right cloths to race in, I bought the right gear for my bike, I bought the goggles and the Lycra swim suit, (something no one should have to see on a middle aged man).  But again none of these things made me a triathlete.  It was the combination of all these things culminating in that event called a triathlon.

The Apostle Paul talks a lot about training ourselves as Christians.  But is he saying that it is in the training that we show we are Christians, NO.  He is saying that in the training we discipline our bodies so that we may then run the race to win.  The Christian life is not in the training, it is in the race.  We train to run the race.  Just like someone can buy all the stuff, the cloths, the bikes, the Lycra swim suits; we can buy and pursue the things that will make us look and feel like Christians.  We can carry our bibles, we can go to bible studies, we can sing songs and pray prayers, but if we don’t put the things we learn into practice and compete in the race, we are not really doing what Paul talked about.

The ascetic who beats his body thinking it will please God, is forgetting that Paul tells us not to train to please God, but to train so we can compete, to train so that when we preach the Gospel, which is what will please God, so we will not be disqualified.  What Paul is telling us is that we need to put the things we train at into practice.  What good does it do to study how we can trust God to provide for us, if we don’t run the race and actually trust God to do the things He promises?  What good does it do to study, to train in the way of peace if we don’t run the race when the opportunity comes for us to turn the other cheek?  What good does it do to study and know how to be humble servants like our Savior if we never actually run the race and serve?  We can learn about love and understand it, but it is in the living it out, in running the race and actually showing it in the way we love that God uses it in amazing ways.  We can study and learn about grace, but it is in the living it out, in running the race and exhibiting  grace that reveals who we are as Christians.

One can read everything they need to know about being a triathlete in books or on the internet.  But having the knowledge does not make one a triathlete.  And training does not make one a triathlete if they never compete.  Crossing the finish line makes one a triathlete.  Being a Christian is no different.

RUN THE RACE.  WIN THE PRIZE

And YES, I am a Christian and I am a triathlete.  In fact I am a CHRISTIAN TRIATHLETE!!!

Triathlon

After a couple of weeks of walking during my Lenten devotional time, I thought it might be good to start running. I need the exercise, and I need the solitude that a lot of people that run seem to find out on the road or trail. So how does one start. Well, I talked to a pastor friend that is training for a half marathon this summer and asked how he got started, and he told me that he found a training plan on a website for runners. So off to Google I go, and low an behold there it is, how to get from the couch to three miles running in 8 weeks.

Now I have a plan, and its time to take some action. After all one does not become a runner by studying about running, by learning everything one can about shoes and technique, but by running. So off to Running Central in Peoria for some advice on and procurement of proper footwear. What did I find? Some of the nicest people ready and willing to help this novice get started with the proper shoes and loads of encouragement. I must admit I had been a little afraid of entering an actual running store for fear that I would be looked upon with condescension as a rank amateur, but my fears were thankfully not realized. Reminds me of how fearful people are of entering churches, fearing the judgment of those who might be known as the “pros” of Christianity. Can we be just as kind and encouraging to those who are seeking a new life running with Christ as these folks were to me as a new runner of the trails? Something to think about.

Anyway, on to the real point of this story.

When I started running my legs would be burning near the end of the one minute intervals of running. Yes, I am really out of shape. I found myself looking at my watch, yearning for the minute to be up so I could once again walk for the next four minutes. I would get so consumed with the discomfort that it was all I could think about and the seconds seemed to go by so slow. Then during my second walk/run a couple of days later, I thought about how I was concentrating on the discomfort instead of the goal and started looking ahead on the path instead of looking down at the ground right in front of me. It was amazing what happened. Now the discomfort didn’t go away, but my mind was on the goal and the burning muscles didn’t consume me. Eureka!! AHHA!! Running lesson, YES! Life Lesson, YOU BET! When we focus on our own discomfort it is really hard to see a way to our goals. When we focus on our own discomforts we find it hard to see where God is taking us. We are pain averse creatures and we will do almost anything to avoid it. But when we focus on the goals, the struggles that get in the way don’t seem so large. It’s not that we don’t notice them, we just put them on proper perspective, as something that needs to be overcome to reach the prize. We see the prize and we press forward. It’s the same when we fix our eyes on Jesus, not on ourselves or our own comfort, and we strive for the prize of winning souls to Christ.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart… Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. “Make level paths for your feet,” so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.
(Heb12:1-3, 12-13)

Triathlon