{...that you may obtain}

it was beautiful this morning - the perfect temperature with a touch of sunlight breaking through the clouds - which i gladly welcomed after yesterday's damp drizzly chill. 

and after a hastily scribbled note, 'gone running. be back later. (hopefully 7-ish)', i was out the door by 6 am, only to spend the next hour basking in its resplendent beauty. the glory of the morning soothed and revived me after yesterday's terrible horrible no-good very bad day. 

but as i rounded a corner to turn onto another street, i was accosted by a neighbor. 

and the first words out of her mouth are a question. 

'Are you training for something or just running?'

now, this is not quite so strange to begin a conversation with, when you consider that she is one of the rare neighbors whom we actually have a relationship with, but the question itself stopped me cold. 

she went on to compliment me on my 'excellent form', a common compliment i have begun to receive, which never ceases to amuse me since i have always been the most un-athletic person in my entire family. 

but after chatting with her for a few moments....and answering her question with an ambiguous shrug, since my pipe dream of completing a half-marathon is still just that.. a pipe dream... i continue on my way, running, the wheels in my head spinning. 

her question is one of those rare, universally applicable ones.  

'Are you training for something, or just running?'

are you working towards a goal or just aimlessly wandering in a holding pattern? is there a destination you aim towards? something you are trying to reach? 

this doesn't just apply to running... this doesn't just apply to material accomplishments in life... my mind leapt immediately to the spiritual application of this question 

are you training for something or just running? 

are you hit-or-miss kind? are you only partly patient?

and granted we are human, and we are not perfect, and we will have bad days and make mistakes (take it from a girl coming off of one of the worst days in the history of ever...) but do we have a goal?

Is there an end against which all our decisions and choices here on this earth are weighed? 

is there a reason to be patient? to be kind? to train ourselves to look past the surface and reach out to the lost? do we work past our awkwardness in witnessing? do we love, do we give, without thought of reward? do we pray to be made more like Jesus consistently, day in day out, come rain or shine or hell or high water? are we committed? are we training? is there a goal?

or are we just...running. half-hearted lackadaisical running. only when the weather is perfect and the sun is shining and birds singing? without commitment. without discipline. without training. only nice when it is convenient, only giving when it costs us nothing, only seeing what we want to see in the people we want to see it in? 

because i know what i am training for. i know what my goal is. i know what the ultimate achievement is which i seek, and it is to reach heaven and hear my Father say, 'well done, good and faithful servant. well done. enter in', as opposed to, 'you were running well...who hindered you? depart from me!' 

we are not called to a Christian life of aimlessness.

Paul says it best. 

'Do you not know that in a race, all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? so run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable crown, but we an imperishable. So i do not run aimlessly. I do not box as one beating the air. But i discipline my body...' (1 Cor. 9:24-27)

we are all running this life-race. we are all on foot, fighting the odds, jostling for place; some falling behind while others forge forward. 

not all finish....but we all run. 

the question therefore remains:

'Are you training for something, or just running?'

what is your goal? what is the prize? on what have you fixed your eyes? 

or are you just running? aimlessly? 

i don't know about you, but lately the cry of my heart has been to be faithful to finish the race. to run on till the end, to reach heaven and be welcomed in. to be able to say i have finished the race and i have fought the fight and therefore there is a crown which awaits me. to train towards that end in very practical ways here on earth, but i do not want to be 'just running'. 

i have an end in sight, i know my goal. and although sometimes it is difficult to fix my eyes and keep them fixed... i know what i am training for. 

do you? 

do we? 

do we make discipline our habit? do we train to forgive, to fight, to never give up? do we teach our souls to run to Christ when overwhelmed? do we habitually strive to be kind, to be patient, to be loving, to be joyful, to be faithful, to be honest, to be upright? 

because if we do not have heaven in our sights, if we are not training for eternity, then it is so easy to lose heart. we have been given a standard to set our choices up against, and then to determine whether the decisions we make on this earth will draw us closer or take us further from our ultimate aim. 

so what are we living for? 

even more importantly, are we living for something? 

do we have a goal? is there a prize on which we are willing to wager our all? 

will we risk rejection and misunderstanding and mockery and the scorn of others who will cry, 'crazy!', cry 'obsessed!'? 

and so, dear reader, 

i must ask. 

'are you training for something?

.....or just running'