The Decision

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