Erik Freiburger, Faith and Life columnist
I can remember growing up and competing in just about anything that was related to sports and athletics. I tended to be quite the jock and it didn’t matter if it was a school tournament or a local church soft ball game; I played as if it was the World Series Championships!
In truth, I can remember playing basketball and stating that, “If you can’t compete, get off the court!” Competition had a much different meaning to me back then.
So then when someone would talk about racing, it meant that you had to be the fastest or at least appear as though you train to be the “best” super athlete that you can picture. I can’t help but think that this is where we first go wrong when we think of the competition or race that God first calls us too.
Competition in God’s eyes seems more about training and sharpening our own abilities to succeed and run the race in spite of our own challenges both in the physical sense and unseen realms. It was never meant to be about defeating or over coming others whether it was school friends or the self imposed super athlete.
It was about taking who you are holistically in the here and now and propelling it to new levels of abilities and self understanding.
The apostle Paul calls us to run the race as to win an imperishable prize (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). Imperishable because the reward we receive is not one that we can see outside of ourselves but internally as we recognize Jesus’ Spirit continually transforming us as our bodies become stronger, our minds sharper, and our spirits lifted to unmeasurable hope and joy.
This is the spirit of inspiration that we see in our friends, coworkers, and the people around us as they pursue their dreams and overcome the individual challenges that they face while running the race of life. This is the spirit which we can allow to flood our hearts and make our blood flow as we too face our challenges as we race with and not against our brothers and sisters, our neighbors, and our friends!
I suppose it is for this reason that my wife Bonnie and I created a group called Re:Genesis within our Expressions Community. We were a group of people who lived with physical, emotional, or psychological challenges but together we ran a race; a life race which as long as we ran together we would be lifting eachother up, empowering one another and inspiring ourselves through faith and the sharing of our fellowship to find new life in the midst of the greatest challenges!
Running the race is not always going to be on the easy road. We cannot allow ourselves though to be diminished or eliminated from the race simply because we choose to disqualify ourselves out of either self pride, lack of humility, or even self loathing.
Remember what Voltaire once said; “The burning of a little straw may hide the stars, but the stars outlast the smoke.” Running the race is not something we can do from the sidelines! We need to ask ourselves; what is the race that God is calling me to? How is it that I can use and improve my abilities to not only build myself up physically, mindfully, and spiritually but also inspire others to enter the race with me?
Am I being all that God created and meant me to be?
I suppose that is enough writing for now. I need to go for a run!!!
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