Last Monday (Memorial Day). 9:00am. I’m standing in my front yard. With a wet suit on. With a swim cap and goggles on my head. With a sprinkler spraying me with water.
Across my driveway from where I stood I had my recently purchased road bicycle leaning against the back of my car. A few steps away was a towel with a bike helmet, sunglasses, and biking shoes.
Standing near my car was my daughter and my wife, holding a stopwatch.
It must have been quite a scene for my neighbors to watch. Then Ann said, “Go” and raced from the sprinkler across my driveway and quickly removed my wetsuit, dried my feet, put socks, shoes, sunglasses, and helmet on, and quickly ran my bike into our cul-de-sac where I then jumped on my bike, still dripping, to ride around the block.
Maybe by now you’ve figured it out. I was training for a triathlon. And in fact yesterday I ran in my very first race!
It was the culmination of more than 8 months of training since my wife first challenged me to give it a try. Over these 8 months I spent a lot of time learning to swim better, researching the right equipment to purchase, running, and biking, but what I was doing on Monday morning was a lot less exciting than swimming, biking, or running. I was practicing my transitions. Huh? What’s that?
Well, one unique aspect of the sport of triathlon is that although there are 3 main segments of the race (swim, bike, run), in between these events there are transitions in which you have to quickly remove the gear from the last stage, and gear up for the next stage. During the transition times the clock never stops. My finish time in the race is a combination of my swim, bike, and run times, but also my 2 transition times as well. From the time I start the swim to the time I cross the finish line – the clock never stops.
By now you’re probably thinking - “Great – but why are you telling me all this?” Hold on and you’ll see.
As I’ve trained this year, God has been leading me through some difficult paths. I’ve dealt with doubt, with depression, with questions about God’s will for me, with feeling like God is far from me, and many other struggles that only a select few people have known about. But through it all, my triathlon training has reminded me that in life – “the clock never stops”.
The Apostle Paul must have been a fan of athletic contests and races because he mentions them as a metaphor for our lives as disciples of Jesus Christ on a number of occasions. What I’d like to do this morning is share with you some of these scriptures, and hopefully encourage you to keep on moving ahead in the “race” you are running in life. Because it doesn’t matter where you are in life: whether it’s like you are coasting down a hill or swimming in cold water, or just trying to get your shoes tied– one thing is certain – the clock never stops.
Paul, writing from house arrest, where he is waiting for a hearing before Caesar, has time to reflect upon what is really important in his life, and he writes to his friends in Phillipi:
Phil. 3:10-11 (NIV) I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
Paul has a goal in his life – he wants to win the prize – the resurrection from the dead promised to those who follow Christ in this life. It is his stated goal in life to know Christ and the power of his resurrection AND the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings.
Some lofty goals, and as one who has tried to follow God the best I can for over 25 years now I can appreciate what he says next…
Phil. 3:12-14 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Paul recognizes that he has not achieved perfection in his Christian walk. He knows the same thing we know: there are good days and there are bad days. “But one thing I do”, he says. “I leave the past behind and I keep straining toward what is ahead – the finish line of the race.”
In other words, Paul never forgot that the clock never stopped ticking. Every day was a new opportunity. He could either dwell on the past, wallow in his present, or he could strain ahead toward the prize of eternal life.
ILLUS: Over the past 8 months of triathlon training, let me tell you there were plenty of days I didn’t feel like getting up and running, or going to the pool, or getting on the bike. I had my share of cold, windy mornings running into a strong headwind. At times like that my mind would start to tell me to turn around, go back home, get back in bed. But I tried to visualize in those moments the finish line. It was still months or weeks away, but I imagined coming around the final corner on my run and seeing the big “FINISH” banner and the crowds of people standing there cheering, including my wife and kids. I imagined quickening my step for the final 100 yards and crossing the finish line strongly with a smile on my face. And that kept me going.
Sometimes we need to do the same thing in our Christian “race”. Circumstances can beat us down. Disappointment in people, in organizations, even in God, can tempt us to drop out of the race. But if we can keep our eyes on the prize we’ll keep going. Sometimes we need to stop and think about the “FINISH LINE” of our lives. That time when we will finally see our Savior face to face. And if we have run our race for him, and kept going day after day regardless of our circumstances, we will receive the embrace of our Lord, and hear him say “Well done, good and faithful servant – enter into your rest!”
Sometimes we will feel like we are not making any progress. It may feel like God is very distant. Believe me I know what that feels like. I’ve had quite a time over the past year trying to figure out why it seems like my prayers weren’t being answered, and why it just seemed so HARD to find God or feel his presence like I’ve felt so often in the past.
But triathlons helped me learn something. There are times in the race when it doesn’t appear you are making any progress toward the finish line. All you’re doing is going through a transition. You’re getting out of a wetsuit, cleaning sand off your feet, trying to get socks on damp feet. Maybe you’re even crashing as you tried to get your feet clipped into your bike pedals too fast. But the clock is still running. The race is still on – and you’re still in it. Because while you’re doing all those mundane things you still have the finish line in your mind. You keep straining ahead with the prize as your goal.
Maybe that’s where you are in your spiritual life today. Maybe you’re in a transition period. You look back into the past and you can see some great times of serving God in certain ways, but those days are over now. And, unlike the triathlon, you can’t quite see what the next “stage” of your spiritual life will be. You’re in a transition time. Remember this: God is preparing you for what is coming ahead. You are still in the race as long as you take the next step ahead of you.
ILLUS: A couple of weeks ago I had a conversation with my children’s ministry director, Miley. We get together every other week to talk about the ministry, but more importantly to check in on how she is doing spiritually. So I knew that she’s been having a pretty dry time spiritually, and that for some reason God was seeming distant to her.
In this particular conversation, she said something to this effect: “Well, it seems like I’m going through a spiritual desert time – but I’m trying hard to get back on the path.”
When I heard that I responded in a way that stuck with me. Not sure if it originated with me or God, but what I said was, “You don’t have to get back on the path. You’re on the path – the path just is going through the desert now.” I think she’s in a transition time. God is preparing her for a new season of moving ahead – but for now it doesn’t feel like anything productive is going on.
There’s a great story in the Old Testament that has always encouraged me with this idea that no matter what is going on in my life, God is using it to prepare me for what is ahead.
It’s found in 1 Samuel 17. David is the youngest son of Jesse, and alone of all his brothers he is left behind when the Philistines come to make war on the people of Israel. When all his brothers go out to fight with the men, he is left behind to tend the sheep. As the story is told in 1 Samuel 17, instead of a normal battle, the Philistine giant named Goliath challenges the Israelites to a one on one battle. For forty days he has come out every morning, mocking the fearful Israelites and their God. When David is sent by his father to bring some supplies to his brothers and learns of the situation – he goes to King Saul with an unlikely solution:
1 Samuel 17:32 (NIV) David said to Saul, "Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him."
33 Saul replied, "You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth."
34 But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, 35 I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth. When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it. 36 Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, because he has defied the armies of the living God. 37 The LORD who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine."
Saul said to David, "Go, and the LORD be with you."
You see what was going on? David was stuck tending the sheep. No glory. No excitement. Not even any conversation! He might have been tempted to think his life was insignificant or that God didn’t really care all that much about him. But while he was out in the fields he encountered some dramatic challenges defending his sheep from lions and bears. At the time I’m sure David was grateful for escaping with his life – but he did not know what God was up to. After all, after the excitement of the battle there he was still stuck with the sheep.
It was not until later, when he arrived at the battle lines, that he began to see that yes, indeed, God had been preparing him for what was about to come. What seemed to David like a waste of time, was in fact a transition, a time of preparation, for a time of great fruitfulness in his service to God.
Perhaps the same is true for you. It feels like nothing is really happening for you. You can remember some exciting times of serving the Lord, and you hope there are some exciting times ahead, but right now you feel like you’re in transition. Keep your eyes on the prize. Take one more step – keep serving God even if it doesn’t seem to make sense. Someday you’ll see what God was up to in that dry spell, and your path will leave the desert and will return to more fruitful ways.
CONCLUSION:
Let me share one last thing I learned while running my triathlon. It was not so much about WINNING as it was about FINISHING. My kids kept asking me what the winner would get, as if I might be the first to cross the finish line. I had to keep telling them, you know I’m just going to be proud to say I actually finished!
Spiritually, that reminded me that…
God is not nearly as concerned with our SPEED as he is our DIRECTION.
Will you keep on striving toward the finish line and the prize God has for you, even when progress is slow? That is what Paul wrote of in 2 Cor. 4, and I’ll close with this scripture.
2Corinthians 4:6-10 (NIV) For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. 7 But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.
8 We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 10 We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.
2Corinthians 4:16-18 (NIV) Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Never forget: the clock never stops.
Run the race set before you with the finish line in mind. Keep going, and look to the day when you will hear “Well done” from the only One whose opinion really matters.
