Sprint or Marathon Faith?

Christianity is a marathon.  Unfortunately, far too often, it is ran like a sprint.  This is the tragedy for many who have claimed Christ at some point but have faltered over time.  God asks us to cling to Him for the long haul so as to be made secure in Him.  Moreover, the writer of Hebrews exhorts believers to run with perseverance the race that is marked out for us (Heb. 12:2).

Think of the many people who have made sincere and emotional confessions of faith, and get excited about God for a period of time, only to revert to a worse state than they were in before.  Jesus warns that some people whose hearts have been cleaned out by the Lord will fall prey to bondage and will fall away (Luke 11:24-26).

Remember, the door to the Lord is narrow and few will enter it.  Therefore, we should not cease to strive for that narrow door lest we be refused entrance for our lack of effort.  Again, life is a marathon, not a sprint.  If it was a sprint, we would be able to accomplish the whole of life in a single day.  This is manifestly not true: life requires a lifetime.  This may sound overly pithy but there are implications in living a life that holds to this basic assertion.

First of all, sprinting expels every physical resource to their tensile limits of exhaustion for short explosions of activity.  Conversely, marathons require temperance and control as to sustain a certain level of strained activity for prolonged periods.  Similarly, Christians who live out Christianity like a sprint will overload themselves with activities and inevitably get burned-out.  Like lighting a match without any wood for a fire.

Additionally, people who sprint have a tendency to feel guilty or worthless when they are unable to run any longer due to exhaustion.  Tragically, this causes many people to walk away from the Church because the constant roller coaster of living Christianity as a sprinter can be vertiginous and guilt-ridden.  Think of the match, strong burst at the strike but with too quick a dissipation for any sustainable glow.

Instead, marathon Christians are both responsible and deliberate in their potency.  It requires a good deal of maturity to recognize how and where we should use our energy but it is all a part of living life as a steward of the gifts God has given us.  We are unable to do everything, but we are expected to do certain things and with no less than excellence accomplish them.

Secondly, sprinters and marathoners train differently.  Sprinting requires explosiveness, so low reps of heavy weight training is done so as to increase the muscular needs of sprinting.  In contrast, the needs of marathons require long-term, rounded workouts that emphasize endurance.  Spiritually training like a sprinter means that we go through bursts of intensive study and discipline until we are burnt out and we need a break.  The problem is that no matter how useful intensive study is, God doesn't ever want us to take breaks from our devotion.  In fact, He wants all of us all of the time.

The antithesis of spiritual training for a sprint is training for a spiritual marathon.  The major difference is that marathon Christianity requires a steady and steadily increasing diet of training, meaning that we grow our capacity to study both in intensity and duration through consistent training that emphasizes the length that the Christian life requires.

The Christian life, in this sense, is not determined by the explosiveness of our faith but by our consistency over time.  This is not to discredit explosive faith.  On the contrary, explosive faith is awesome and beautiful but it is tragic if it is not sustainable.  Paramount to this is to recognize that we are not racing against other people.  Repeat: we are not racing against others.

It is crucial to understand this.  Realize that God has uniquely called each of us to run our own race at a pace that He has determined.  In reality, some run faster than others at different points in their races.  If we think that we are racing them, we will try to take God's plan into our own hands, instead of simply relying on His pacesetting goodness to determine the course and speed of our lives.  Passion: yes.  On fire hearts and lives: yes.  But although a fire may begin with a single bright spark, it is the constant fuel supply of air and carbon that keeps the fire sustained and growing.  So let us become marathoners for Christ, clinging to Him for the length of our whole lives with steadfast perseverance that lasts a lifetime!