EVERY DAY IS TRAINING DAY

February 8, 2010

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. 1 Corinthians 9:25-27

The Winter Olympics begin this week!

I don’t know about you, but I’ll be watching at least some of the competition. I usually try to see the opening and closing ceremonies, because they’re so spectacular, and I’ll try to catch some of my favorite sports, especially ice skating (spoken like a real girl, I know).

Competition and comparison have been on my mind constantly since I joined a gym in January. It’s been a while since I’ve been in an exercise class, and I’d forgotten how easily they draw me into the comparison trap. I tend to gravitate to a spot in the back of the room in these classes, which means I get to see all the people in front of me who seem to kick higher, have more endurance and better looking hair than me (yeah, I’m that shallow…). I always have to remind myself that I’m not competing with any of them—the only one I’m battling is me, to get myself stronger, build up my endurance and keep extra pounds off of me (I’ve just about given up on the hair…)

And just how does this relate to the national parks? The papers have been full of reports of the administration’s proposed 2011 budget, which freezes funding for most domestic programs–including the National Park Service, as specifically noted by The New York Times–at current levels for three years. Kurt Repanshek discusses this issue in another thoughtful National Park Traveler posting, as he wonders whether the momentum gained from Ken Burns’ national park television series and the subsequent leap in park attendance for 2009 will all be for nothing due to lack of money.

Then I read a Frommer’s newsletter with a quote from Mr. Burns, in answer to a question about whether each American should purchase a park pass every season. “I think it’s essential to the survival of the country that people use and exercise their parks,” he said. “Like anything that doesn’t get exercise, it has a tendency to atrophy. We want people to go out and see their property. You own the grandest canyon in the world. All you have to do is go out and visit it.”

I suspect Mr. Burns would agree that flat funding for the National Park Service is not a good thing. But I also think he feels that regardless of what Congress does, and despite what little control we individuals may have in setting our nation’s budget, citizens must act on their own. And that means visiting the parks. We’ve got to use ‘em or lose ‘em.

That’s the exact same message about the Christian life the apostle Paul is trying to get across in the above verse. We can’t control everything that goes on in the race of life.  What each one of us can do, however, is exercise our spiritual muscles, day in and day out, to enable us to reach the prize of eternal life.

At the end of the gospel of John, after His resurrection and before He goes back to heaven,  Jesus urges Peter to continue on in his ministry, hinting that his life might not have a real happy ending. Peter looks over at John (who sometimes describes himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved”–John 21:20. What’s up with that??) and asks, “Lord, what about him?” (John 21:21). Meaning, “Hey, no suffering for him? Is he going to get off scot free?” (which he doesn’t, as we find out in Revelation 1:9). But Jesus will have none of that comparison nonsense: “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You follow Me!” (John 21:22).

That says to me that I can’t be sizing myself up in regard to other believers who know more Scripture, who seem to sail through crises with the greatest of ease and who God appears to favor perhaps a little more than me.  Just as comparing myself to fellow exercisers is no help at all to my physical development, so too matching up my spiritual life against everybody else’s gets me nowhere. I need to be about running my own race, and not so much checking out the position of the rest of the team.

I hope you’ll enjoy the Olympics. I urge you to do what you can to stay fit.  You know I also want you to think about spending your vacation in a national park. But above all, I pray that your first priority is keeping your soul in good shape.

2 comments

  1. Your Good Big Brother says:

    You may have forgotten, but 1Cor. 9, 24 was one of Dad’s favorite verses, using it especially on Greg and I.

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