Portland Biblical Community

I’ve copied the following from a friend’s blog because I resonate with it deeply - Scott

Lasting in Ministry
John Ortberg tells about the time that he was watching a friend of his run in the Los Angeles Marathon. Have you ever run in a marathon before? Even if you haven’t run in a marathon, I think you’ll enjoy this. This humorous story also gives you a little glimpse into the crazy city in which I currently serve.

There were 18,000 runners - 18,000 brave, motivated, skinny, overachieving, masochistic people. With the event being held in California, some of the runners were a little out of the ordinary. One guy ran in full circus makeup and called himself “T-bone the Clown.” Another contestant ran as “Flower Man.” Thirteen people draped themselves in a specially designed costume and competed as a human centipede.

The starting line was a sight to behold. T-bone was shaking hands with the crowd and laughing and waving. The centipede looked friskier than a centipede has a right to be.

Then the race began. The first phase of such a race might be called the pleasure stage. At this point running is fun. Your body is loose, your heart is pumping, you are “one with the cosmos”: The blood is flowing, the head is clear, the lungs are breathing deeply, the birds are singing, the sun is shining, the fish are jumping, the cotton is high, Daddy’s rich, and Momma’s good-looking. You are functioning like a well-oiled machine.

Now how long this stage lasts depends on the runner’s conditioning. If I were running a marathon, this stage would last about twelve or thirteen feet. Not too long.

After the initial rush of pleasure, running becomes drudgery. After drudgery it becomes effortful and laborious. And if you keep going long enough, you reach the point when the temptation to stop is overwhelming. Your feet are protesting vigorously, knives of pain are stabbing your calves; your lungs have burning coals at the bottom of them. Runners speak of this experience as “hitting the wall.”

At this stage, the LA marathon really became interesting. John describes it: T-bone wasn’t laughing with the crowd anymore. The human centipede was hanging over the fence, and it didn’t look good - all thirteen centipedal stomachs united in collective revolt. At the finish line, people came dribbling in one at a time. Some didn’t make it at all.

The start of a race is enjoyable. It is easy. Finishing is hard work. To finish well - that’s glory. Finishing well is what counts.

Your life is like a marathon, more than a sprint. And that is why we are encouraged to run the race with endurance. Heb. 12:1 NIV says, “Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” Once you discover your life purpose and begin to live it out, you will experience all kinds of difficulties and you will be tempted to quit. You will have times in your life where you will just want to throw in the towel. We need to be people who learn the art of perseverance.

written by Scott Olson \\ tags: ministry, perseverance

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