Running for the Prize

Strengthening Connections                                 Monday, September 20, 2021

Running for the Prize

Late in the year 2012, I took up the hobby of running for fitness. Eventually, I would reward my habit of running with community races periodically. My first endeavors were 5Ks, which of course is 3.1 miles. Then I tried out some twice that distance, 10Ks. One thing led to another. Through 2014 I took in my first 13-mile race, the half-marathon, and my first marathon with its 26.2 miles. I am thinking about all of this, because after the days of COVID shut down public races, and after I had a few non-running injuries to repair, I am starting from scratch. I resumed with my first public 5K race recently.

When I do these events, what do I get? It is all personal: the reward is in the preparation and the health benefit intrinsic to the activity. I get a tee-shirt, and for the longer races, I get a finisher-medal. If my time is fast enough within my age group, I get an extra token of achievement. These shirts, medals, and trophies are not the real treasures, compared with the prize of discipline and fitness that comes with the training.

This is similar to our progress in spiritual life. We look to God for full energy—grace—offered freely from God’s generosity. With the boost of God’s grace, we run. We run to take hold of heavenly rewards. That’s right! The reward of heaven is not later, it starts within our earthly life as we look to receive it every day. We do not work now and at the end of time, wait in long lines to collect a token to make it through pearly gates. We work now to live in Christ because heaven visits us here in the dailiness of our experience. Moving toward heaven, the reward of heaven goes with us. That is how good God is. To be in Christ is a reward in itself. Look at this prayer assigned to next Sunday. (Book of Common Prayer, p. 235, Proper 25):

O God, you declare your almighty power chiefly in showing mercy and pity: Grant us the fullness of your grace, that we, running to obtain your promises, may become partakers of your heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I hope to be able to keep running for a bit longer as part of my health regimen, but honestly walking and yoga make more sense for the long haul of my fitness routine. I hope you have your good routines too. In terms of spiritual health, let us do like the prayer says to do, to run spiritually, always fueling up with God’s grace. Those efforts will themselves become treasures to enjoy reliably and perpetually as we run the course that Christ has given us to finish.