Slow Down

No matter what pace you are keeping—whether you are walking on the sidewalk, running at the park, or driving down the highway—other people are always passing you. Everyone is in such a hurry. You may wonder where they are going at such a breakneck pace, but you also have to admit that you feel the nagging temptation to speed up.

Lots of voices out there encourage you to move along, get more done, check more things off your list. Your boss keeps setting benchmarks closer to one another, so deadlines approach with alarming speed. Retailers and online vendors announce sales that end tomorrow, so you feel pressured to make the purchase today.  As the invitations and announcements pour in and your calendar fills with events and opportunities, you begin to wonder whether you are the one who is driving or the one who is driven.

In the midst of this pressure to hurry from place to place, task to task, person to person; it becomes increasingly difficult to discern what God is doing in your life. Peace on earth, hope of the ages, joy to the world, and the transforming power of love become little more than greeting card sentiments. In haste your “hallelujah” becomes “humbug.”

Advent comes as an invitation to slow down. It is a season of waiting and it reminds God’s people of the way God continues to complete the work of salvation in God’s good time. Together we linger over the reality of God’s patience with us and with all creation. We take the time to contemplate God’s marvelous grace which extends from generation to generation. We savor the complex richness of God’s unfathomable love.

As we move through this month toward the celebration of our Savior’s birth, let me invite you to rest a while. Resist the temptation to cram in every sale, concert, party, or parade; but consider carefully your opportunity to join the faithful who come to worship and adore the new born king.

Confessions of an Endurance Athlete

You may have noticed fewer runners out on the roads and in the parks the last few days. It’s been recovery week for me and for a few thousand other area runners who competed in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Savannah Marathon & Half Marathon. Even with proper conditioning, nutrition, and equipment; running 26.2 miles takes a toll on the human body.

I heard of a few people who were planning on running the race without any significant training. I haven’t heard how that turned out for them; but I don’t imagine they had a very good result. On the other hand, there were thousands of people who crossed the finish line at Forsyth Park with grins on their faces and hands raised over their heads in celebration because they had done the long, hard work of preparation for race day.

They were teenagers, college students, young adults, and scores of others whose memories of those days are fading. They were school teachers, shop keepers, factory workers, and business professionals of all kinds. You could look at some of them and tell they were obviously athletic. Let’s just say, it would be very unlikely to find a picture of some of the other finishers on the cover a fitness magazine.

They may have had very different journeys to the starting line of Saturday’s event; but I am confident that those who finished well made the commitment months ago to avoid the distractions, to face the challenges, and to endure the struggles that would prepare them to accomplish what some of their own family and friends thought was impossible.

Let me confess that training for endurance events is not always fun. There have been times when I’ve wanted to ditch a workout or just quit all together; but I press on because there is something more important than another finishers’ medal that keeps me going.

Living a faithful life is an endurance event. Paul warned several congregations of the temptation to give up. There are distractions. You get tired. You face opposition—sometimes from the most unexpected people and at the most inopportune times; but to those who remain faithful—who persevere to the end—God has promised an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. Let us press on for that prize.