Lent: Day 13

Going The Distance

Scripture: Read and compare Matthew 10:39, 16:25; Mark 8:35; Luke 9:23-5, 17:33; and the even stronger language in Luke 14:26-7 and John 12:25.

Marathoners and African long-distance Olympians often remind us: we humans are amazingly capable runners – able to outdistance even great runners like cheetahs, which can attain great bursts for short distances. The great St. Louis / East St. Louis runner, Jackie Joyner-Kersee – being interviewed with her coach-husband, Bob Kersee by Bob Costas in 1996 after her racing and long-jump wins and losses – reminded us: life’s a long-distance run, not a sprint!

In this fast-moving, highly competitive world – where “the race is to the swift,” and quality is very often sacrificed to speed – Jackie was putting her losses in the larger perspective of her whole career as a runner. As a truly great runner, she knows: how we run the race can be even more important than the detail of winning or losing.

“Giving all, it seems to me, Is not so far from victory.” Bob Costas remembered.

There are lots of ways to “win” in life. And life is a long distance run, more than it is a sprint. Just as one can “win” in a small skirmish but still lose the larger battle, so one can “win” many small contests and till be a real loser in the larger picture!

Jesus’ paradoxical suggestion that one who “loses his life for my sake and the gospel will find it” points to the same truth. It’s the gospel in a nutshell – a way of seeing: dying on a cross for a larger purpose can be seen-understood as an enlargement, a “glorification” or exaltation” as the Gospel of John calls it. The life of self-giving is the larger, freer life – more expansive in its scope, more fully human in its reach.

Jesus shows us our best, our deep human capacity for “going the distance” when it really counts. So...how am I doing with my “race” this week?

Prayer: Lord God: as you clear the winter deadness and clutter from my life during this new Lenten season, cut away the trivia that distracts and weighs me down, and stretch me to my full height as a joyous follower of Jesus. Amen.