Sports Metaphors

Some people really don't like when preachers and teachers use sports metaphors. Some people just aren't sporty. Even so, the great apostle Paul wasn't afraid to use a sports metaphor in 1 Corinthians 9:24 - "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 win the prize."

Some of you know that I used to run cross country in high school. Since that time, I have occasionally taken up running in attempts to "get back in shape." I even ran a 5K in 2001. Usually I'll run for a few weeks or months and then quit, deterred by the weather, by my schedule (good luck running at summer camp) or by just getting tired of running with no purpose.

Well, I'm back at it. So far I've run three times, 2 miles, 3.5 miles, and almost 4 miles. The attempted four-miler was this morning. I didn't quite make it the whole way without walking. I'm just not there yet.

I ran this morning at a running trail in Round Rock. We're down visiting my parents since I had a couple of days off in a row before school starts. The trail is nicely groomed gravel and winds along a creek, up the side of a dam, and along a lake that's probably 20 acres. That's the story, here's the lesson: progress doesn't come without pain, no matter how nice the surroundings. Now for the immediate applications...Walnut said hundreds of times, "We are building a better building. Will we build a better church?" Like my run this morning: a new building is pretty scenery, but pretty much irrelevant to success or failure. I'm not in the trenches at Walnut any more, so I don't know for sure the state of the progress. Even so, I can still assure that progress won't come without pain. However, it is important to distinguish between the pain of injury and the pain of success. Soreness after a tough run is your body's way of telling you that you're making progress. Soreness after beating yourself in the head is your body's way of telling you that you're an idiot. So I ask the questions: is there pain? Remember the cliche- no pain no gain. What kind of pain is it? The pain of success or the pain of defeat? A strong healthy church is the church that puts itself through the pain of training, the pain of stretching limits, the pain of pushing itself beyond its abilities. I want every church in the kingdom to be that kind of church, especially the ones where I have served and built relationships.
Run.
Stretch.
Grow.