You are probably familiar with the old adage, “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.” I was a sprinter in my youth. I never won or lost a race at the starting line. How I started the race did often help in my quest to cross the finish line first, but ending well determined whether or not I won the race.

In the 100 meter dash, a good start is very important, but without proper running form, lightning fast speed, and a smooth finish, you will not win the race, unless your name is four time Olympic gold medalist Jesse Owens or the now retired eight time gold medalist Usain Bolt, the current world record holder at 9.58 second, both of whom had a gear most others only wished they had.

On the other hand, the 400 meters is a brutal race. It is one lap around the track and involves speed, stamina, and tactical strategy. The last third of the race is the worst. Every ounce of energy is gone – your muscles are screaming to stop, your legs feel like rubber, your mouth is dry, your breathing is labored, your body wants to shut down. But the 400 is won by pushing through the pain and fatigue. The runner who has one extra drop of gas left in the tank often outruns the competition in the last few yards and crosses the finish line first.

While we do have to sprint from time to time, life is more like a marathon, pacing yourself for 26.2 miles, striving to maintain a steady and comfortable pace up and down the hills, slowing now and then for a drink of water and a suck on an orange slice, finally crossing the finish line with your tank empty.

I learned that my speed or endurance only got me so far on my own. I needed good coaching, along with commitment and hard work, to help me maximize my strengths and minimize my weaknesses. Isn’t it true that so often we try to be both athlete and coach and we don’t look to those who can help us become the best we can be? I never really reached my full potential, due to recurring injuries but also because I didn’t always listen to the good coaching that I had at my disposal.  

Committing your life to Jesus and following Him does not guarantee that you will win every single race – unemployment still happens, marriages still fail, cancer still shows up, sin still tempts you – but it does promise that you will always have a coach who can help you overcome a bad start, or a stumble in the middle of the race, so you can finish well.

God has given us the Holy Spirit to lead, guide, and direct our steps. When you invite Jesus into your heart you also get the Holy Spirit as part of that transaction: “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” (1 Corinthians 3:16) 

The apostle Paul regularly used running metaphors in his writings. Examples: Galatians 5:7, 1 Corinthians 9:24, 2 Timothy 4:7-8, Hebrews 12:1-3, Philippians 3:12-14. These references point to agony leading to victory (no pain, no gain), self-control, discipline, purpose, attitude, forgetting, focus, reaching, all things needed not just to win in running, but also to live a successful life committed to Jesus.   

So, regardless of your slow start (your past), or current messed up race strategy (your present), with the God the Father as the initiator of your faith, through Jesus as the implementer of that faith, and by the Holy Spirit as your faith energizer, your future is hopeful and you can finish the race well. If you’ve never asked Jesus into your heart, you can invite Him in right now. If you are already a Jesus follower but you feel the race slipping away, right now ask God to re-fill you with His Spirit, because we all leak and need to be refilled over and over again.

The Triune God is the best coach available to you and me. He really is! Are you committed to listening to, and following Him, as you run through life?

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In a world that misleads, misguides, and misinforms, there is value in “seeing is believing.” Believing in something before we see it is contrary to human nature. We are conditioned to see first, and then believe.

We tend to think that our eyes don’t lie. But do they? We see and believe through the lens of confirmation bias, which is the tendency to process information in a way that supports our beliefs and values. If you tend to think that older people are bad drivers, you tend to see more bad driving by the elderly. If you believe that all young people look at their phones 24/7, you tend to focus on examples of kids glued to their phones, while missing their parents doing the very same thing. We corroborate evidence that supports our way of thinking.

It is also true that many great achievements started when someone first believed it was possible. They believed before they saw. Faith is the same way. Faith is believing what we cannot see. Hebrews 11:1 tells us so – “To have faith is to be sure of the things we hope for, to be certain of the things we cannot see” (GNT).

A story in the Bible shows us two responses to seeing the same thing. One response was a belief in what was seen while the other, seeing what was believed. In Numbers chapter 13, as Moses and Aaron were ready to lead the people into the Promised Land, twelve scouts (one from each ancestral tribe) were sent out to check out the land of Canaan.

Upon returning from their reconnaissance mission, the scouts testified that the land did in fact flow with milk and honey (13:25-27), just as God has promised (Exodus 3:8; Leviticus 20:24). They also reported that the people who lived there were powerful and the cities fortified (13:28).

Upon seeing the size of the inhabitants, ten of the spies saw fear rather than faith – “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are (v.31).” And in verse 33 we read, “We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!”

Caleb, one of the scouts, responded to that alarming news this way, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it (v:30).” He trusted God’s plan.

The ten allowed what they saw to negate what they knew to be true, and in doing so, instilled such fear that the entire community cried out that it would have been better if they had died in Egypt  or the wilderness (Numbers 14:1-2). 

Again, Caleb, joined by Joshua, saw faith instead of fear. They believed what they knew to be true (God’s promise) rather than seeing the fear (giant people). In addressing the crowd, here is what they said – “If the Lord is pleased with us, he will lead us into that land, a land flowing with milk and honey, and will give it to us. Only do not rebel against the Lord. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will devour them. Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them” (Number 14:8-9).

All twelve of the scouts saw the same thing, yet they responded two very different ways. Ten believed what they saw. Two saw what they believed. In which camp do you find yourself?

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The Fourth of July holiday is less than two weeks away. For many, that is the quasi midpoint of summer, bookended by the Memorial Day and Labor Day holidays. In addition to fireworks, July 4th is a day for cookouts and picnics, celebrating the holiday with family or friends. You might be one of those, maybe traveling to a friend’s beach house or simply walking down the street to a neighborhood gathering.

The host of the picnic has asked each guest to bring a dish to share. Amid greasy burgers, hot dogs, potato salad, deviled eggs, baked beans, and potato chips, you decide to add a healthy option to the food table. Spinach and strawberry salad. You put the spinach in a bowl and add in crumbled feta cheese, sliced fresh strawberries, onions, and walnuts. You then mix some white wine vinegar, olive oil, chopped fresh basil leaves, sugar, salt and pepper, pouring the mixture into a plastic salad dressing shaker.

Right before the meal you pour the vinaigrette dressing over the salad, tossing it all together. Once mixed and tossed into the salad, no part of the salad is untouched by the dressing. It fully coats all the ingredients – the spinach leaves, strawberries, onions, and the walnuts. Now I want you to keep that image of fully coated in mind.

If you are a follower of Jesus, He wants to be in, to touch, every part of your life. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus desires to fully coat your life. He wants to give you wisdom as you decide on a career or which college to attend. He wants to give you peace as you sit in the doctor’s office looking at the tumor in your lung. He wants to help you walk away from the water cooler chatter that has turned to gossip and slander. In order to live life the way Jesus requires, He needs to be in us, and with us, not just on Sundays, but also Monday through Saturday. Jesus wants to be in, to fully coat, everything you do and say. 

Psalm 139 is a great place to see this intensely intimate relationship we have with Jesus. The psalm begins with these words, “You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely.” (vv. 1-4)

A few verses later we see this question, “Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence?” We then get the answer in verses 8-10, “If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand with guide me, your right hand will hold me fast.”

So, I ask you today, are you only allowing Jesus to touch certain places and keeping Him out of others, or are inviting Him to be the “dressing on your salad;” fully coating and touching every aspect of your life?

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Think for a minute about the last time you went to your favorite clothing store to buy some new clothes. Let’s say you were looking for some new blue jeans. You picked out a few and headed to the dressing room. What was the first thing you did once you got into the dressing room? You put on the new jeans, right? Of course not. First you took off the jeans you were wearing and then you tried on the new ones. Simply pulling the new ones over the old ones, now that would be crazy, they just aren’t going to fit properly.

It would be foolish to try on new jeans simply by pulling them on over the old ones. You might be thinking, “Of course I would never do that.” But those of us that are followers of Jesus often try to fit the new life Jesus calls us to over our old life. And just like those new jeans, it will not fit, no matter how hard you try, no matter how hard you wiggle your hips.

In Ephesians 4:22-24 the apostle Paul is encouraging his readers (and us today) to be renewed in mind and to live according to the new nature that God us making, an image in God’s likeness. This renewing comes by the power of the Holy Spirit when we submit our will to His. Here is what we read – “You were taught, with regard to your former self, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitudes of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”

I think these verses tell us three things about this new self, this new nature. First, we are to completely discard the old self; put off the old self. The Greek word used here means “to lay aside.” He calls us to lay aside those old jeans, no matter how much we like them. Second, Paul calls us to a radical reorientation in both mind and spirit (made new in attitude). And lastly, this nature we have in Christ is completely new, not refurnished. Our old jeans are not to be patched or sewn; instead, they are thrown away and replaced by a brand new pair. Paul says that righteousness and holiness, which are qualities of God, are reproduced in his genuine worshippers. (In this context, “holiness” is free from contamination. This particular meaning is only found two places in the NT; here and Luke 1:75.)

This new self can only come under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We play a part in laying aside the old self, but without the Spirit’s transforming power, we are unable to change ourselves. David knew this — after being confronted by the prophet Nathan calling David to repentance after his adulteress affair and coverup, David cried out to God: “Create in me a clean (pure; as in not dirty) heart, O God, and renew a right spirit (new self) in me” (Psalm 51:10).

This new self is a new identity; one given to us by Jesus.

So, today I ask you – What “old jeans” do you need take off that are holding you back from being the person God is desiring to make you into?

Dear Father, please put Your finger on those areas in our lives that are old and need to be made new. Help us throw off those things and in the process make us more like You. Amen

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You have probably heard, or even used, one of these two phrases – “The glass is half full” or “The glass is half empty.” If the glass is filled to 50% capacity is it half empty or is it half full? That rhetorical question is often a litmus test of a person’s perspective on a certain situation or circumstance. What you see as half full someone else might view as half empty, or vice versa. A person with a “half full” perspective generally has cause for optimism, and conversely, “half empty” often implies a pessimistic outlook.

To look at it another way, let’s turn to football. When does a punter come onto the field? The punter is most often called upon when the offense has failed to gain ten yards on three attempts. So, on fourth down, the punter takes a snap from the center and punts to ball to the opposing team, hopefully taking away their field position advantage, or better yet, pinning them deep in their own end. The punter on my college football team used to occasionally run with the ball to try and gain a first down instead of kicking it to the other team. That drove our coaching staff crazy but George would run off the field and say, “Coach, even though it was 4th and 20, I saw a first down!” Now that is definitely a glass half full mindset!

(As a side note, he was a three time all-conference selection, one of the best and most consistent punters in the league.)

The Bible tells us that we should sing to the Lord whether we face 2nd down and 1 yard to go or 4th and 20. Psalm 104:33 says this, “I will sing to the LORD all my life; I will sing praise to my God as long as I live.” Psalm 47:6 puts it like this, Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises. And in the Book of Acts (16:25) we read that when Paul and Silas were in prison – that certainly would be cause for a half empty point of view – they were praying and singing, and guess what, other prisoners were listening.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism puts it this way – “Man’s chief aim is to glorify God, and to fully enjoy him forever.” We worship not based upon how we feel. We worship because God is worthy of our praise (Psalm 86:9: Revelation 4:11).   

So, I ask you today, what is it in your life that has a grip on you? What is it that is zapping your joy? What is it that is causing you to want to punt on 4th and 20? You might not be able to change your circumstances, but you can change your outlook. Worshipping every day, whether you feel like it or not, will change you and it will change those around you.

And remember this, even if your glass is half empty, it is also half full!

(As a postscript, sadly, George died in 2013 after a long and courageous battle with cancer, and even on his death bed, as cancer had eaten away his body and he only had hours to live, George still had a glass half full mindset, he still saw a first down possible, even at 4^th and 20. The last time I talked to George was only days before he died and he ended the call with these words, “Dave, thank you for your friendship, it means a lot to me.” I replied, “No, George, thank you!” Love you and miss you ol’ #42!)

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Think of a time in which you felt threatened. The threat being either real or perceived. Whether or not you knew it, at that moment your body was deciding whether to fight, flight, or freeze in response to that threat. This fight-flight-freeze response is our body’s natural reaction to danger. As the threat is processed in the part of our brain that is responsible for perceiving fear, changes in our body functions occur, hormones are released, all of which help us response appropriately and rapidly. Whether we fight or flight is driven by our sympathetic nervous system while the freeze response comes from the parasympathetic (rest and digest) nervous system.

We face threats of all kinds all the time. It could be a threat from an abusive person. Major health issues threaten us. Financial or employment threats. Weather-related threats. Not to mention snakes, from which I instantly run, fast and far. There isn’t a rest and digest thought in me when I am in the vicinity of slithering serpents.

There are times when it is best to stay and duke it out with the threat. Other times, get the heck out of dodge. The phrase “get out of dodge” most popularly came from the fictionalized myth surrounding a real-life frontier town. Dodge City, Kansas, was a busy cattle town that was notorious in the late 19th century for saloons, gunfights, gambling, brothels. The long running television series Gunsmoke centered on Dodge City and Marshal Matt Dillon often ran bad guys out of town, saying “get out of Dodge.”    

In many situations, we can run and hide, but somehow the threat still finds us. The bully always seems to find us. We can run from medical challenges, financial woes, relational strife, but those things do not disappear off the radar simply because we flee.

Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, we cannot get out of the grip of the threat. King David had one such moment. His son Absalom very much despised his father and did everything in his power to both disgrace and threaten him. It appears that David’s sympathetic nervous system told him to flight (flee) and hide in a cave, possibly the same cave in which he had earlier hid from Saul. While it is very likely that David did hide in the cave to shelter himself from Absalom’s plots, I believe that he also went there to seek guidance and protection from his God, our God. Here is what King David prayed as he hunkered down in the cave, trusting in his Lord.

I have so many enemies, Lord, so many who turn against me! They talk about me and say, “God will not help him.” But you, O Lord, are always my shield from danger; you give me victory and restore my courage. I call to the Lord for help, and from his sacred hill he answers me. I lie down and sleep, and all night long the Lord protects me. I am not afraid of the thousands of enemies who surround me on every side. Come, Lord! Save me, my God! You punish all my enemies and leave them powerless to harm me. Victory comes from the Lord – may he bless his people (Psalm 3, GNT).

Today, and every day, whether your response to a pending threat is to fight, flight, or freeze, will you pray as King David did, trusting your Lord, your God, to be ever so close, leading, guiding, directing you, keeping you safe in His presence (Psalm 18:2), either safe from the threat or safe in the threat.  

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