Sermon Illustrations

Dave Hood tells the story of training to run a 5K run. Every time his wife and he would go running on their favorite trail, they’d walk a little faster, and with a little more gusto. One day, a half mile in and a young lady came at them sprinting towards them. They jumped out of the way so she could pass, and she blew by them so fast, all they saw was Nike shoes and a pony tail. Dave thought to himself, “Man, she must be late for something. No sane person would run that fast for no reason.” But, when she ran by him, it engaged his competitive spirit. So, he said, “All right, honey, it’s time to pick up the pace a little.” So, they started walking a little faster down this road, and they got about a half hour into this trail, and here she comes again! He couldn’t believe it. He thought, “You’ve got to be kidding me! Not only has she lapped me once, she’s lapped me twice now! Well that was it. "It’s on now.” Now, he’s dragging his wife behind him, “Come on, honey, keep up.” They were almost toward the end, and Dave’s feeling really good about himself when all of a sudden this lady passes him a third time! This time he was just mad. He threw his water bottle on the ground and screamed, “This is ridiculous.” And then he writes, “What she was showing me was that being on the path requires a whole other level of commitment. Up to that point, I hadn’t been willing to give that level of commitment.”

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