I’ve been a pastor’s wife, a teacher, and a missionary for about forty years. Looking back, it’s easy to forget that I didn’t start out knowing what to expect from this long race of faith. At first, everything felt fresh and new. I treasured each new discovery, learned from it, and eagerly looked for the next one.
Everything about my new faith felt fresh and exciting. I eagerly followed Bible reading plans, learned to pray, and faithfully filled journal after journal. Since this was before eBooks and the internet, I spent hours browsing the shelves of local Christian bookstores, looking for anything that would help me grow.
During those early years, everything felt fresh and new. There was always something to learn, discover, or experience in my walk with God. Over time, I’ve learned that while the calling remains the same, maintaining that same focus requires discipline. The newness may fade, but our commitment to keep following Him must remain.
The danger zone
Familiarity can be both a blessing and a challenge in our walk with God. What once felt fresh and exciting can gradually become routine if we’re not careful. Athletes face a similar challenge in their training. Running laps, doing pushups, and eating right can all become monotonous unless they remain focused on the goal they’re working toward.
The danger is that familiarity can slowly erode our sense of wonder. Not because God has become less faithful, but because we’ve grown accustomed to His faithfulness. The same Bible that once seemed impossible to put down can begin to gather dust. Prayer can become mechanical. Church can become another item on the calendar. When that happens, we’re reminded that faithfulness is sustained not by novelty, but by purpose.
The long race
For some reason, many of us struggle with the “stick-to-it-iveness” required to pursue a long-term spiritual goal. Short bursts of effort are easier. We can invest ourselves fully in a conference, an outreach, or a special project because we know it has a beginning and an end. The challenge comes when God calls us to remain faithful long after the excitement has faded and the finish line is nowhere in sight.
Marathon runners understand that finishing the race requires preparation long before race day arrives. Their training is intentional, shaped by the goal set before them. Day after day, they do the work necessary to build endurance for the journey ahead. They know the race will not be won by a burst of effort, but by the steady discipline required to keep moving forward mile after mile.
1 Cor. 9:24-27 NLT “Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.”
Believing a lie
It’s normal to face ups and downs in our spiritual lives. We sometimes believe the lie that if our faith is strong enough, we’ll never struggle with discouragement, sadness, or weariness. The truth is that everyone finds it hard to keep going when life’s storms have battered them, especially when those storms seem to come one after another. If you’re like me, you’ve found yourself longing for a moment of peace in the middle of it all.
Maybe part of the issue is that we become disillusioned. The impression we often give and sometimes receive when we come to know Jesus is one seen through rose-colored glasses. Everything will be fine. Everything will be good. Until it isn’t. Then the questions begin: “Where is God? Why is it so hard? When will it end? This isn’t fair?”
To quote the character Scar from The Lion King, “Life’s not fair.” While I wouldn’t look to Scar for spiritual wisdom, he was right about that. We live in a fallen world where trials, disappointments, and hardships touch every life. Much of the battle is fought in our thoughts and minds. If we can learn to focus on God during the fight, no matter how difficult it becomes, we will find ourselves on the other side looking back without regret.
The destination
This life of faith is much like training for a marathon. To endure, we must keep our focus on the goal set before us: the Kingdom of God. We are not running for bigger houses, newer cars, promotions, or larger retirement accounts. There is nothing inherently wrong with any of those things, but they were never meant to be our destination.
When our focus is fixed only on temporary things, discouragement is never far behind. We may grow weary, lose heart, and be tempted to turn back. As Hebrews 11:15 reminds us, if those heroes of faith had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had the opportunity to return. The opportunity to turn back will always exist when we leave the door open to it.
There will be things we believe God for that we will never personally see fulfilled. That can be difficult to accept in a world that values immediate results, but the Kingdom of God has always been larger than one person’s lifetime. Sometimes we labor, pray, build, and sow not for ourselves, but for those who will come after us.
Hebrews 11:32-40 reminds us that many of God’s faithful servants lived this way. They endured hardship, remained faithful, and trusted God’s promises, yet many never saw the fulfillment of what they were believing for. We are, in many ways, beneficiaries of their faithfulness. The ground we walk on today was prepared by those who ran their race before us.
Hebrews 11:39-40 (ESV) says:
“And all these, having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God had provided something better for us, that apart from us they should not be made perfect.”
Their story was not complete without us, just as our story will not be complete without those who come after us.
We aren’t here to see how much we can get out of life; we’re here to see how much we can give, dream, and reach for God’s Kingdom. That means we won’t always see what we are praying for. Some of those answers are reserved for those coming behind us, who will stand on the spiritual shoulders of those who have gone before.
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