May 21, 2014
Finish Line
In first place the bicycle
racer from Spain crossed the finish line with his arms held high in victory and
the crowds cheering. Unfortunately, he began his celebration one lap too soon.
By the time he learned of his mistake he was unable to recover his lead and
came in 56th place. It occurs to me that we seniors maybe doing
something similar by taking a victory lap when there is still more race to run.
“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” (Heb 12:1 NIV).
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1 comment:
Gail;
-----Here I am just reaching the end of the race, and you’re telling me this!? I wasn’t even going to run a victory lap. As soon as I crossed that finish line, I was planning to be off to the showers! Well, okay. So there’s more to go. What more could there be to do when one hardly has enough strength left to drag his body around?
-----We think of the jungles, the heat, and the bugs of mission fields, or building new churches, or supplying the ones we have, keeping the grounds up and keeping all of the programs functioning and activities acting. All of this is running the race, isn’t it? And doesn’t that require the vitality of young, healthy, strong bodies? I suppose an old snail could fund the actions of energetic youngsters keeping himself off the track and out of the way.
-----Funding energy is good but receding from the track is not. As long as we are in contact with others there are seeds spreading. I like to think of each person as being a place where the physical universe intersects with the spiritual one. For every human has a body able for acting upon the material of the former, and a spirit joinable with the Holy Spirit of the latter. The crossing of the two gives rise to the heart and mind like the crossing of heat and wood gives rise to the flames of fire. (Then will the flames be purifying or consuming?) So as long as one has any presence at all in the physical universe, there will be contact with others scintillating and sparking thoughts and feelings in them.
-----Consciousness and sub-consciousness both are built of myriads of myriads of thoughts and feelings. And among all these are myriads and myriads of networks of thoughts and feelings each built around a particular thought or feeling, and other networks of which their formations are continually influenced by a particular thought or feeling. Church buildings and jungles and such are important as being places for preaching and teaching and evangelizing and running programs and activities, but the point of it all is the worship happening wherever, and wishfully everywhere the physical universe crosses with the spiritual one in a flurry of thought and feeling.
-----Each causing of a thought or feeling generative of worshipful effect in another of those places, or even in your own, is indeed another step in the race. One doesn’t need to move the body much, or even drag it around. The hint of genuineness in the warmth of a smile, or the touch of a fingertip on a cheek at the right time can effect the whole structure of the thoughts and feelings flowing in another person for his whole thereafter. Running is not as much a physical affair as we thought, especially realizing the smallest of effects can make the difference between the flame of the mind being a consuming one, or a purifying one.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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