I remember this day about 15 years ago
when Katie and I went to a new Nike outlet store in the suburbs of Chicago and
I bought a new pair of Nike Shox running shoes. (Yes, these were the days
before my toe-shoe obsession.) I took my new shoes and went off for a run. I’d
been keeping up with some exercise while serving as a Youth Minister as we
played games at church, and I had my weekly flag football league with seminary
students to keep me in relative health. But that day, I had decided that I
needed to start running more. I went for a 3 mile run that was hard and slow;
but I was excited for this new habit. I would now be a runner. The decision was
made.
Except I wasn’t. I ran that day. I may
have even ran the next day. But then I didn’t strap up my shoes for another run
for months; maybe even a year.
Actually, it would be 8 more years
before I would ever be able to claim with certainty that I was a runner. After
2 bouts of Thyroid Cancer and my new-found toe-shoes, I started running again
and stuck with it. I found a half marathon training plan and followed it to the
letter; preparing for my first real race. That habit would finally stick as I
ran 2 marathons the next year, 5 ultramarathons the year after that, and
continues to this day.
Why didn’t my grand decision lead to my
identity as a runner in the first place? I think that my perspective was that
all I had to do was get started. If I’d make the decision, then I would be on my
way. But the next day and the day after that, I wouldn’t confirm that decision
by heading out for another run.
For me this represents the way we talk
about our faith. So often in the church we talk about “making the decision”. We
tell people that they need to choose Jesus and then everything will change. But
the reality is, it’s not one decision; it’s a habit that we’re creating. If
that one decision isn’t followed by a habitual, daily choice to be in
fellowship with Jesus; then we’re not being changed.
John says it this way: “This is the
message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there
is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in
the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the
light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the
blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.” – 1 John 1:5-7
We are to be “people of the Light” and
that comes not from just claiming to be so, but by choosing to walk in the
Light every day. We’re called “Christians” because we look like Jesus; or at
least we try to.
I want to encourage you to make the
decision; not just that initial decision to follow Jesus; but the daily habit
of choosing to walk with Him. It is in the discipline of daily choosing to be
with Jesus that we can grow to be like Him.
Blessings,
Regan
