God and the GPS Watch

I thought that with all this running that I've been doing lately, I ought to be learning something useful from it. And after 5 weeks, I finally came up with something today. :-) Jack has this great GPS watch that he uses to run. It tells him all sorts of information. It uses satellite info to tell you exactly how far you've run. It has a stop watch and a nice little calculation that displays what your 'pace' is at any given time. It even has a heart rate monitor so that you can train in your 'target zone.' Well, I was using it today when I went out to run. I'm SO happy that the weather is starting to get nicer so that I can get off the treadmill... anyway, I don't use the heart rate monitor... I think that I don't really want to know when I'm about to have a heart attack and die -- I'll just take my chances. ;-) But I was using it so that I could know how far I was going and my pace. Today's run was supposed to be for 3 miles. It's pretty interesting to me that at this point that 3 miles is beginning to seem like a 'short' run that I should push myself a little bit on. This is a sure sign that I'm making progress. Not too long ago I'd have been thrilled just to make it 3 miles!

So before I headed out, I decided that I wanted to make a goal of keeping my pace under 11:00 minutes per mile the whole way. For anyone reading this who is a real runner, stop laughing. That's pretty good for me. ;-) So off I went and things were going pretty well.... I think I was getting close to the 2 mile mark when I thought, "I might make this -- I'm doing pretty good and I still feel good... yay!" That's when I looked at the watch and saw my pace had dropped to 11:30... oops. It didn't FEEL like I was running any slower. Everything felt pretty much the same and I thought I was doing good. Needless to say, I stepped up my pace a bit and kept a closer eye on the watch for my last mile... I finished my run at a distance of 3.2 miles and I did it in 32:30. So that's an average pace of 10:16!!! That actually turns out to be a 'personal best' time for me, so I'm pretty happy about that. :-)

But here's what I realized. Without the watch, without a 'standard,' I wouldn't have made it. Relying only on how I felt I was doing turned out not to be very reliable at all. I needed something to measure myself by -- to make sure I was staying on my pace. And isn't it like that with God and His Word? Can I trust that God has given me His Word as a 'GPS watch for my soul'?? Guiding me, pacing me, keeping me on course? That regardless of what I FEEL, I'd better be glancing into His Word regularly to check on myself -- make sure I'm still 'on pace.'

Here's a verse that came to mind:

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 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. I Cor. 9:24-27

One last 'lesson' for the day. Today I set a goal for my pace. I haven't done that before. But that goal kept me focused and determined. Back at the Stream Franklin conference a couple of weeks ago, there was an analogy given at one point about coming into Heaven being like Jesus waiting for us at the finish line of a race. That 'picture' has stayed with me very vividly since then. Maybe it's because of all the running, I don't know. But I know that feeling of getting to the end of a race and crossing the finish line. There is such a feeling of RELIEF. I'm done, I made it! Well, this thought that Jesus will be waiting for me, with arms wide open ready to catch me as I cross that line at the end of the great race of life -- well, that's just an amazing thought to me. Having that thought and desire to be there with Jesus as a 'goal' for my life hopefully will keep me focused and determined about dealing with issues of my heart and soul that have far greater consequence to them than whether or not I run a 10K race three weeks from now... but I appreciate these 'real life' analogies that can help us see the deeper truths.

One last verse:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, 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. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Heb 12:1-3