I just finished cross country season, so the idea of perseverance has been on my mind. It was a successful year with my team winning the championship. While that is always special, more impactful were the life lessons achieved over the course of the season. Cross country is a different sport than most since it is quite linear. You run the course, you finish the race, that’s it. I have often seen tee shirts at meets emblazoned with the phrase ‘our sport is your sport’s punishment’. Now I’m not super keen on the idea of running being seen as punishment but I get it. It’s not easy to run distance. It’s made harder by the varying nature of the cross country route which has changing elevation and terrain. Then you add the element of weather, and it can become quite challenging. So, the theme of perseverance is one that jumps out when you think about it. We read this is Hebrews 12: “And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” But what is perseverance?
What is perseverance?
Perseverance means to not give up even when things get hard. The definition of it is steady persistence in sticking to a course of action, a belief, or a purpose. When put this way, its not just a cross country running thing, but for anyone who is an athlete, trains seriously or is a coach. In the gym we need to be persistent to execute our training plan. If you are like me, there are days you just don’t feel it. But you do it anyways, you persevere. If you are a coach or personal trainer you will know this is true for those you work with. They will struggle to stay on the course; to believe they can do it. Our job then is more than setting a plan and showing them how to do it. The key ingredient to successful coaching or training is to show the purpose and then build and support belief in it. That’s perseverance. I suspect anyone reading this gets it. You likely practice it either in your own training or with those you lead.
But what about in the spiritual realm?
A spiritual application
There is a direct, and critical connection with this concept to our journey as followers of Jesus. This is one of the reasons I love Faith and Fitness magazine. The connection is not only obvious (to me anyways) but critical to success in discipleship. The writer of Hebrews 12 said this as part of their train of thought: “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.” Okay, so if we are to run with perseverance, we need to get rid of the things that get in the way. ‘Throw off things that hinder’ means get rid of things that hold you back. Think of it this way: what hurts our performance? Lack of training definitely; a lack of effort and injuries too. A lack of skill hinders. We would encourage people to train to get better and do their best. When you do that, you then discover just what you are capable of.
But what about sin? Sin is a transgression of God’s laws as found in the bible. Put more simply, it’s the bad things we do that go against God’s rules for life. Most Christians would know sin is bad but what is the practical effect? We see this in our passage- is ‘entangles’. In cross country running entanglements like roots, tall grass and vines, can literally trip a runner up and cause them to fall. So, we need to avoid them. We see this same spiritual connection as followers of Jesus. We need to get rid of the sin and entanglements that trip us up. Get rid of them! Throw them off! Don’t get entangled!
Run the race of life with perseverance
That leads us back to our original point: run with perseverance. But just as a cross country race is not random, nor is (hopefully) your training plan, we follow that which is ‘marked out’. When something is marked out it is measured and known. So too with our life as followers of Go. It is not random; God has a purpose and plan. We see this in Ephesians 2:10 when Paul writes, “we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” His plan is marked out. We then need perseverance in order to experience it. It all fits together.
When you run with perseverance you can experience all God has in store for you. Run the race of life, train hard and with intention. Stick with it, don’t give up, work hard. So too in our walk with God. Stick with it, God has a plan, don’t give up. Run the race of life and see what God has in store. Be a winner for God!
