Endurance

I remember being in college and a couple of my friends wanting to go out to the track at school and run some laps. This in no way sounded appealing to me. I am lucky enough to still get by without ever really exercising, and running long distances sounds about as fun as going to the dentist. Reluctantly I decided to go but knew that this just wasn't for me. I would just go out and have some fun. I went walking down to the track to meet my friends and strolled in with some athletic clothes, running shoes, and my 32oz Dr. Pepper. Yes, probably not the best thing to take with you when you are running, but I lived off that stuff in college. They thought it was pretty funny and proceeded to ask, "What are you doing with that thing?" I simply responded, "I'm gunna drink all of it."

They did a quick stretch and we took off down the track. I did however set down my Dr. Pepper, knowing that I would soon return. I started out just find and wanted to keep a quick pace to get this running stuff over with as soon as possible. I rounded the first corner and was feeling great. My legs were moving one after the other, my arms pumping. I looked like a runner. I however, knowing my current athletic state, knew that it would not last. Second corner came and went and when I got to the third all the joys that people find in a good run seized to exist. I started breathing pretty hard, and asked myself why I even came out in the first place. My legs started to feel weak and I sucked down as much air as I could get as I rounded the last corner.
My friends had completed their warm up lap and I made the decision that one lap is all I needed. I made it to the grass where we started, collapsed on my back, grabbed my Dr. Pepper and sucked it down like it was the living water. My friends, laughing their heads off, continued on their jog and got some great entertainment out of my suffering.
I did not have the thing that I needed to continue. I did not have the endurance to keep running. And without endurance, there is no way that you can ever be a runner.

Endurance is a necessity in life, especially in the Christian life. Jesus was very clear that life would not be easy for those who follow after Him. He assured that times will be tough, that it will be easier to quit the race and run to the sidelines, but when we depend on him for our endurance, we are able to continue on, even when we ourselves do not have the means, energy, or the determination. Our determination must be simply to rely on Christ and not to complete the race ourselves.

I came across this verse in Galatians recently and was uplifted by what Paul had to say.
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.
(Galatians 6:9 ESV)


Raising teens, volunteering and trying to lead teens are tiring jobs; jobs that take lots and lots of time to ever see results. As we try to teach our teens and students about faith, about making right decisions, about depending on God, and about living out what they believe, it is more than easy to get discouraged. Time after time, they will not do what they have learned they should, they will not want to listen to us, or they will keep making the same mistake over and over. The only thing that pays off is endurance on our part as parents, mentors, and leaders. We must never give up, we must never write them off, but we must have the endurance to continue through the seasons. If we do not give up and find our endurance in Christ, then in due season we will reap. And the reward will be seeing your students or teens make that right decision, to apply what they learned into a real situation and simply to "get it." To get what a relationship with Christ is all about.

Let us not grow weary - Jared Scheppmann

God is near - Deut. 4:7

What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him? Deuteronomy 4:7

I often have heard those describing Christianity as a religion like none other. In every other religion we, the people, have to get to god. Whether it be through certain rituals or traditions or doing enough good things to earn our way to him. In Christianity however, we can never earn our way to God. We can never be good enough to atone for all the wrong that we will do in our lives. So God came to us. God dwelled with his people and when the time was right we came down to earth, taking on the form of man and dying for his people, for his Children. So many religions teach us that God is so distant and inaccessible to us, but our God is near us unlike any other God.

Someone once told me that God is as far away from us as the distance from our knees to the ground. This is prayer week at Canyon Ridge and this verse should remind us that God is near us when we speak to him.

Trials and tribulation can often make him seem so far away, but they are mearly a distraction. When the disciples encountered the storm in Mark 4 Jesus felt so far away to them, but he was there all along, wanting them to have faith. Maybe the beginning of the end of the hard time you are facing is not God solving your problem, but rather you taking the first step of knowing that God is near and he will not forsake you.

Exodus 33

Exodus 33 starts with, "The Lord said to Moses, “Get going, you and the people you brought up from the land of Egypt. Go up to the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I told them, ‘I will give this land to your descendants.’ 2 And I will send an angel before you to drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 3 Go up to this land that flows with milk and honey."

God says, "get going," it is just so to the point and direct. There is the land flowing with milk and honey and it is just waiting for you so you better get a move on. It makes me wonder why there were not itching to get there as soon as they could. They had become content with that they had and where they were, but God's ultimate destination was still the end result.
This passage makes me think of heaven. Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. What I believe the Kingdom of Heaven to be is Gods work on this earth that is going on right now, all around out. And sometimes we choose to participate and sometimes we choose to ignore it. Dallas Willard says that you can have as much Heaven now as you can handle. But so often we just get content with what he have right in front of us. The Kingdom of Heaven is available, it is right in front of us, and depending on how much of it you would grab on to is how much you can have not. So "get going!" let's go the land of milk and honey now and not wait anymore.

Exodus 22-24

In Exodus 22 God gives the laws of property and social responsibility. As I read this passage it is quite different to hear everything in terms of oxen and field, but I feel like I can really see God's intention in this. God is our father, every person on this planet is his child and like any good father he wants them to be treated fairly. If Johnny on the playground stole your sons lunch it would seem appropriate for him to pay him back for what he stole. God is a loving God but he is also a just God. He has set forth what is right and what is wrong in the world, and what is wrong our father wants to see right. When I read exodus 22 I do not hear a dictator laying down the law that we are to follow or else, but I hear the father who wants to see his children treated fairly.

Ex. 22:29 “You must not hold anything back when you give me offerings from your crops and your wine. “You must give me your firstborn sons."
My boss has a son, and one day he told his son that he needed to give away some of his toys to some kids who needed them more. His son agreed, but then started to pull out all the toys that he didn't play with anymore saying, "they can have these, I don't like them anymore." We often give to God the same way, not wanted to give where we will feel it, but wanted to give the left overs and the forgotten about. God however is not some egomaniac. He is a father teaching his kids how to give. That a real giving heart will give their first, will give there best.