A Way Forward
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
-Hebrews 12:1-3
What is faith? For us Christians faith is a strong and integrated belief in God—that God is who God says and that God will do what God promised. This involves elements of radical conviction, trust, and confidence as well as humility, compassion, and love. True faith is not easy. In this well known passage found in the book of Hebrews, the author uses the symbolism of running a race when speaking about the concept of faith. I believe this connection to physical and athletic activity helps to create a compelling visualization of faith, so I have adapted and expanded this to incorporate athletic training as a visual representation of the process of growing in our faith.
Starting Line
In Hebrews 12:1b-2a, it says “And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” There are several important aspects here that I would like to highlight. First, the writer doesn’t mention a starting line. I realize that pointing to omission does not create a solid foundation, but I believe this is important because it speaks to an aspect of faith. We all start from where we presently find ourselves. This is true in faith as well as in athletic training. When we begin training, we don’t use weights that are much too small for us (or weights that are much too big) in an attempt to start at an expected starting point—we use weights that fit our current muscular ability. Likewise, in our faith journey we don’t backtrack to a starting line that we think is the “right place to start.” We also don’t jump forward past what we can handle. We start from where we are. God places a starting line at each of our feet when we make the decision to pursue God.
Second, scripture says the race is marked for us. I believe that each of our “races of faith” are personalized for us by God. This doesn’t necessarily mean that we should mess with the pillars of theology, church tradition, and Christian faith. Faith has a communal aspect as well as an individual aspect. Our races overlap quite intricately with the races of others. However, God has given us each a unique calling, and the context we find ourselves in is unique for each of us. This combines to reinforce the idea that God adapts our “race course” or “training regime” to fit our context and help us realize our calling. In the imagery of athletic training, a person who is training to become a tennis player is going to adapt their workout routine to specifically help the muscle groups and athletic ability needed to play tennis well. They won’t fill their workout routine with basketball drills.
We are told to “fix our eyes on Jesus.” Regardless of the different places we start from, regardless of the differences in our specific context and callings, our end goal remains the same. Jesus is the culmination of each of our races, and our eyes should remain fixed upon him in order to stay on our course.
Doing What We Can
Once we make the decision to start our race/begin our athletic training/follow Jesus, it is important to understand that we won’t be perfect in our pursuit. We can’t expect to easily live like a saint immediately after deciding to follow Jesus. When we begin training, whether for sports or personal fitness goals, we recognize that we often have to adapt the form of some exercises to fit our current level of fitness. This may mean doing push ups from our knees, or a crunch instead of a full sit up. In faith this means we must understand the reality that it takes time, commitment, hard work, and the grace of God to transform our bad habits into a new way of living. N.T. Wright does an excellent job of connecting this idea to a biblical example in his sermon The Mind Renewed. In this sermon, he talks about the story in 2 Kings 5 where the Syrian general Naaman was healed of leprosy by God through the instruction of the prophet Elisha. Wright points out that most of the time we focus on the miracle of healing found in this story and the conversion that followed, but we forget about what happened after the conversion. Naaman had to figure out how to live his new found faith from a position where he was still expected to support his home country's gods. Naaman doesn’t do this perfectly, but he does what he believes he can and that combined with the grace of God allowed him to continue to grow in his new found faith.
“Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.”
We are going to bring many of our old habits with us as we begin training in faith, and God understands this about us and covers us with grace and compassion. Many of these habits of our old selves should fall away over time or be transformed into something new and life-giving. As we grow, our pride will fall away revealing a humble spirit. Our selfishness will transform into commitment, our complacency into discipline, and our fears will begin to be released in surrender. We see this throughout the Bible, including the lives of the heroes of faith we find in the book of Hebrews, directly before our passage in Hebrews 12. Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David—all of these people led lives of great faith, but all of them also fell short at times. They were all human and as such they continued to make mistakes throughout their own faith training, but they also continued to grow as more and more of their old selves fell away, uncovering the image of God present within.
Stopping to Rest
As I mentioned in the last section, sometimes in our faith training we will fall short. We will mess up. And sometimes we will pause. When we are engaged in a training program, usually there is a day or two set aside to rest and recover. Our muscles need this break in order to heal and grow. When we are running, sometimes we need to stop and take a break. Maybe we need to hydrate, or eat something to keep us going. In faith, I connect this with the biblical concept of lament, as well as what has traditionally been called the “dark night of the soul.” The questions we ask in our pain, the songs and sounds of lament we raise to God in times of crises help our faith to grow. I would even argue that our overall spiritual growth becomes stunted without those times.
It’s okay to ask God why, to not understand, and to even be angry with God. God wants us to share who we are in a complete way, and that means showing God our fears and anger. It means being real and honest with God about what we are feeling, and understanding that God is present with us despite the feelings we may have. It means realizing that we can never truly embrace God’s strength until we give God our weakness.
Working Together
In the United States especially, we have embraced an individualistic Christianity that emphasizes the importance of personal spiritual growth. The work you put in behind closed doors is evident on the field, court, track, or simply in how you hold yourself. In faith, the time we spend engaged in scripture, meditation, and personal prayer becomes evident in how we live our lives and show our faith. Great importance is given to personal growth in our faith, and rightly so. However, we may sometimes forget that faith is both individual and communal, and as such faith is built in community just as much as behind closed doors. When engaging in athletic training, we often incorporate times of training with others. Many of the sports we may be training for are team sports that require shared times of training. When we are together we can help to build each other up, helping each other move towards our goals, and encouraging each other when we need to stop and rest.
As Christians, we are all a part of a shared community of faith called The Church. As we train in faith, we need to embrace the community of believers who will help us to grow, discern the voice of God, and encourage us in times of crisis and depression. Along with that, we all share responsibility in building up our shared faith. In Romans, the shared community of Christian believers is referred to as one living body in Christ. The Church as a whole is a living and growing being, and we each hold the responsibility to work towards that shared growth in Christ.
Athletic training provides a compelling visualization for our faith, but it does miss one aspect of how we grow in our faith. God is actively present with us at every step. God doesn’t simply wait for us to come to the starting line when we decide to follow Christ—God brings the starting line to us. God doesn’t stay in the distance as we get ourselves together throughout the process of allowing our old selves to fall away. God is right next to us bathing us in grace and compassion as we work to reveal God’s image inside of us. God is present for our triumphs and mountaintop experiences as well as our low points of anger and lament. God is with us behind closed doors and in our shared Christian community.
God is present always, at every single step.