3. AIM CLEARLY (vs. 26)

            Paul says, “I run in such a way as not without aim.”  I saw a lady in a track meet win her race by several yards but be disqualified because she ran out of her lane for a period.  It is too easy to be distracted, to be unclear about what really matters, to miss the importance of commitment and sacrifice, or to forget that trying too many things is at least as bad in its outcome as trying too few things.  These kinds of things disqualify too many.  Aim means the eliminating of everything but the objective of your aim.  Are there a few things at which you are aiming?  What strategy are you employing to reach them?  Is your aim and strategy in writing? (It should be.)  Is it clear and really important to you? (It should be.)  How about to others?  To try too little is to guarantee a small outcome. To try everything is to guarantee that you will do nothing well.  Aim in order to win.

4. GIVE UP THE RIGHT TO FEEL GOOD IN THE SHORT TERM (vs. 27)

            It’s a sad part of the human condition that we let happiness matter more to us than winning.  Look at the face of the man who scores the winning touchdown.  Happy?  You bet.  Look at that same face when he’s been at practice for two hours in the hot sun and his coach is in his face yelling at him.  Happy?  Not at all.  Yet without paying the price of seemingly thankless preparation, he would not have won.  All the most important things in life require not just self-discipline but self-sacrifice.  That’s the point of verse 27.  Want a great marriage when you’re 60?  Self-sacrifice will be required now.  Want great kids when they’re 35?  More self-sacrifice.  Want great standing when you retire among your peers?  More self-sacrifice.  You have to be prepared to sacrifice good feelings, relaxation, and contentment in the present to be able to win at something in the future.  Nobody gets to the Promised Land on an escalator.  Everybody has to walk over sharp rocks at times.  Part of getting there is being willing to pay that price.

            I hope this helps in your developing a winning strategy.

            No one can win at everything nor can anyone win all the time at anything.  But everyone can plan to win. You could substitute the word “succeed” for the word “win” and the above sentence would have similar truth, but maybe you would feel it was more applicable.  That’s what Paul is getting at in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27.  A study of that text is a pretty good way to develop a winning strategy.

1. DEVELOP YOUR LIFE AROUND THE DESIRE TO SUCCEED/WIN ( vs. 24)

                       Paul contrasts the “also ran” with the “really ran.”  Some enter a race just to get a   t-shirt; others to win.  It’s the “really ran” that Paul commends.  It’s not winning that is commended but the intent to win and running in such a way that you can win.  There are races that are purely optional.  Nobody has to play golf, and some of the happiest golfers I know don’t care whether they win or not.  However, when you get married, have a child, take a job, or become a Christian, your “just    finishing” is not an option.   You need to succeed at these big things in life and you can do it, but it starts by saying to yourself, “I will not be an ‘also ran.’ I want to learn to win at this.”

2. CONTROL YOURSELF (vs. 25)

             Paul says the Christian life is about eternity, so we should be at least as determined as a man who wants a trophy, gold medal, or check.  This verse commends “self-control.”  This is a concept many skip, but no one who wins     skips it.  I see people fail at self-control because they would rather feel good now or they would rather shift the responsibility to an accountability partner.  You can often find such a person who will “hold you accountable,” but if you want to win,  you must learn to take that responsibility yourself.  To be sure, we all have periods when an accountability partner is essential and important, but most of the time it’s like having somebody else do your homework.  If you expect your wife  to see to it that you become a good husband or father or your husband to see to it that you become a good wife or mother, you are shirking your responsibility and diminishing your chance of success.  So if you need an accountability partner in     the short-term for some special need, God bless you for doing what it takes.  But God expects “SELF-control” of His people, and if you’re going to win at any important aspect of your life, it is an essential element.

(to be continued)

In a sermon a few weeks ago I made the offhand remark that parents should teach their children to win with grace and lose with faith.  Elizabeth Gibbons’ thoughtfully asked through e-mail, “I understand winning with grace, but how can we lose with faith?”  This is a great question for us all, and I want to spend the next several columns fleshing out my too brief e-mail answer to Elizabeth’s question.  So thanks, Elizabeth, for listening critically and asking a really helpful question.  In the next several blogs I will cover:

1. Winning with Grace         
2. Having a desire to win
3. Having a worthwhile goal
4. Developing a strategy for winning
5. Taking responsibility with gratitude
6. Losing with Faith
7. Things worth losing
8. Possessing the faith to learn from a loss
9. Winners lose without becoming losers

             Our text for these blogs will be I Corinthians 9:24, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize?  Run in such a way that you may win.”  This verse is not just about winning at sports but about the importance at winning at life and, in particular, winning at the Christian life. 

 WIN WITH GRACE BY HAVING THE DESIRE TO WIN

            One of my favorite questions to ask ministers in interviews is, “How competitive are you?”  I enjoy asking the question because only about two in a hundred are comfortable with whatever answer they give.  What I’d love to hear is, “I’m competitive.  I like to win.”  Most of them are apologetic about wanting to win, even if they do, as if the desire to win were some kind of a character flaw.  God speaks to us through Paul and makes it clear that Christians are to develop the desire and ability to win at whatever game they enter. 

             Look at 1 Corinthians 9:24 again.  Obviously, running is a command which means it is neither natural nor universal to do so.  You must choose both to enter the race and to run.  It also means that in the games you enter, you are to expend all the energy and effort you have in order to try to win.  For the Christian life, he is saying, “Don’t just get in the race to get a T-shirt, get in to win.”  Today because so many people want everyone to feel affirmed we diminish the importance of winning so no one will feel like a loser when they don’t win.  According to this passage of Scripture, anyone who takes winning casually at marriage, church, school, business, friendship, or following Christ is destined to lose.  We will see in a later column that this doesn’t mean you have to win, but it does mean you must run in order to win. 

             So, do you want to win with grace?  That’s the first step – wanting to.  If you just want to be in the game or if you want someone else to do the hard work and the heavy lifting, stop right now and ask God to give you the desire to run the races in your life in order to win.

When you have trouble keeping your mind on your Bible reading, praying, or on a sermon (never happens at Shandon – right?), here are a few tips:

1) Don’t expect too much of yourself.  When you do, in any field of endeavor -including time with God – it leads to short-term trying harder and a long-term sense of failure frequently followed by quitting.  There are parts of Scripture that are fascinating.  There are prayer needs that are riveting.  There are others that are common and everyday but still important.  Set a level of focus that is fairly normal, and if you fall below that normal level of focus, make yourself go back and start again as a discipline. 

 2) Tell yourself you’re going to have to pass a pop quiz on this passage and make yourself pay attention to the details.  While you pay attention to the details, you may be surprised at the inspiration that pops out of the page at you. 

3)  When your mind wanders during prayer, just stop.  Say, “Lord, excuse me for just a moment.”  Pick up a paper and pen or pencil and write out the distraction you have.  Then you won’t forget it and you’ll be able to go back to it and deal with it when you’re through with prayer.  As soon as you’re finished jotting down a note, just start talking with God again when you were interrupted.

4) Ask yourself, “Why am I bored with this passage of Scripture or this prayer need?”  Maybe you need to eliminate that prayer for a time.  That’s ok to do.  With Scripture, maybe you don’t have any idea why it was written in the first place.  (For example: law, genealogies.)  You can also find out from a Bible dictionary why that Scripture was written such as Nelson’s New Bible Dictionary (the best one-volume, Bible dictionary I know of at this point).  That has helped me, at times, to make difficult passages more interesting.  Also, I’ve been really rewarded by puzzling over something that is in Scripture for years (like genealogies) and finally getting it.  As one man said to me, “I wouldn’t spoil your search to understand the genealogies by telling you why they were written for anything.”  Twenty-five years later, I’m glad Dr. Nelson didn’t give me a quick and easy answer, and I’m glad the Lord made me puzzle about it.  I’m not going to tell you why either.

Thanks for your favorable responses to this past Sunday’s sermon.  The antichrist is an interesting subject, and I want to share a few more thoughts on what I think it means to acknowledge the presence of the antichrist in our world. There are three basic beliefs about God in the world:  antitheism, deism, and theism.

1.  ANTITHEISM – This belief holds there is no God and that the material universe just happens to exist.  There is no explanation for it.  There is no purpose for it.  It started nowhere.  It’s going nowhere.  It has no creator and does not need to be understood except as something that is material and exists.  This outlook finds the idea of the Christ and antichrist equally unnecessary.  Evil is a behavioral problem.  There are no spiritual problems.
2.  DEISM – There is a God (or gods).  He or they probably made the universe.  He has no personal involvement in its management or preservation, and he does not enjoy it because he is uninvolved with it.  The enemies of the Gospel whom John is confronting in his letters (called Gnostics) were a lot like these deists.  They believed God existed but was uninvolved, distant, and knowable only as we speculated, argued, and disagreed.  Even then we could not be certain.  This outlook also finds no place for antichrist.  Everything here plays out at a behavioral level.  Prayer and the Spirit of God are an illusion.
3.  THEISM – There is a God.  He created, manages, and loves the universe, the world, and all that is in it.  He is personal in nature.  He reveals Himself to people in many ways and is interested in us and how we’re doing.  He not only pays attention to us, but He helps us and intervenes.

             The doctrine of the antichrist reminds me that the material world is governed spiritually and is headed for a spiritual destination.  The problems that come my way are not just a result of the need to reengineer the material world.  There is also a need for me to deal with the spirit of the antichrist in this world of ours.  Other than this being interesting, why should this idea be important to you?

Here are the first four followed by the final and 5th help.

Anchor 1: A well broken-in Bible

Anchor 2: Calloused Knees

Anchor 3: Worn out Shoes

Anchor 4: Worn out church clothes

Anchor 5:

A CHRIST-CENTERED DATEBOOK OR CHECKBOOK (or on-line account) – I was told early on that what you love you will spend time and money for.  What do your datebook and checkbook say about your love for the Lord?  Pay attention to this when you balance your checkbook.  Could either or both of these books be used as evidence to convict you of being a Christian? 

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            The Lord be with you as you enhance your sense of connection to God.  It is His greatest gift to us, and He means for us to experience it and enjoy it.

Anchor 1: A well broken-in Bible

Anchor 2: Calloused Knees

Anchor 3: Well worn Shoes

Anchor 4: – WORN OUT CHURCH CLOTHES – Make sure you are at church.  Hebrews 10:25 says, “Forsake not the assembling of ourselves together.”  In other words, don’t miss church without a real reason.  Church is not an option for the serious believer but a reunion with the body of Christ.  What percentage of time are you at church on Sunday? When you’re not there, what are you doing?  What does that say about your sense of connection to our great Lord?

Anchor 5: A Christ-Centered Datebook/Checkbook

Anchor 2: Calloused Knees

Anchor 3:

WORN OUT SHOES – Romans 10:15 says, “How beautiful are the feet of them who bring good news…”  Are you seeking to tell others about the Lord Jesus?  He is the only Savior anyone can ever have and they cannot have Him unless they are told about Him (Romans 10:13-14).  When you tell, you have to leave the harvest in the hands of God.  You sow the seed.  You don’t make it grow.  Not ready to tell?  Then make a list of people you think need the Lord that you wish you could tell. Don’t tell anybody (yet).  Now put some calluses on your knees for the people on this list.  Sometime you might begin saying, “Lord, please give me the opportunity to tell (a particular person) about Christ.  See what happens.  Get trained in faith sharing.  Call Clay Smith’s office (clay@shandon.org or 782-1300 x186) and ask for help in doing so. 

Anchor 4: Well worn Church Clothes

In my first post, I talked about the first of five helps to anchor your life in Christ.  As a reminder, these steps don’t do the anchoring; only a relationship the Lord Jesus Christ can.  However, practicing these 5 things great greatly influence the level of anchordness (is this a word?) that you feel.

Step 1 – a Broken-In Bible

Step 2 - CALLOUSED KNEES 

 Talking is relating and relating requires talking.  Prayer is talking to God and is absolutely essential to a relationship with Him.  At my college roommate’s funeral, I had the privilege of talking with Pat Conroy.  He related that several times a year his grandpa, Pete, would stay at their home for a month at a time.  When he did, he always slept in the bottom bunk and Pat in the top.  He said every night his grandpa would review his day with the Lord.  “Lord, you know that today I tried to talk with that woman at the store about You and …” I think sometimes we try too hard to be profound when we pray when all we need to do is talk with God.  Do you?  How often?  About what? 

Next Post: Worn Out Shoes

           Before I tell you about these anchors and how they look, let me make sure you don’t think these keep you anchored to God.  He anchors Himself to you and the anchor line cannot be broken.  These are the things you do because they deepen your sense of being anchored but do not create it.  This past Saturday I gave Patty 12 red roses because I love her like no one else on earth and because she is my wife.  The gift did not cause me to be either married to her nor to be more married to her.  They did enhance my joy in a marriage we already had.  These disciplines will do that for your commitment to God, and that is all they are designed to do.

 Help 1 - A BROKEN-IN BIBLE 

You must become a Bible reader.  It is God’s Word to anyone who reads it.  Your Bible should be a broken-in, well-used book with the feel of something used regularly.  Problems I hear people have that prevent them from having a well-read Bible are:

1.   I don’t understand it.
2. My mind wanders.
3. I don’t see the point of parts of it.

             ANSWERS:

1.  I don’t understand it all either, but I understand it much better as I read it than I do when not understanding it is my excuse for not reading it.
2.  My mind wanders when I fish, watch a movie, talk with Patty, or talk to myself.  So what?  I still go fishing because a wandering mind doesn’t stop the enjoyment of fishing. The same goes for Bible reading. 
3.  I don’t see the point of roses, but Patty does, so I give her roses.  I don’t see the point of genealogies, but African ancestor worshippers who are brought to Christ are more blessed by the genealogies in the Old Testament than by any other part of the Book.  Since when does anything have to mean something to me to be worth my time or money?  Read in faith that it’s in there for a reason and keep at it.  You need to learn to do that about a lot of things – might as well start with Scripture.

Next Time: CALLOUSED KNEES