Keep on Keepin’ On    Sunday, Sept. 29

 

 It could only happen in America.  Really, it could only happen in California – they are a little bit strange out there.  That’s how John Ortberg described the Los Angeles Marathon in his book “The Life You’ve Always Wanted.”  There were over 18,000 runners lined up to run the Los Angeles Marathon – over 26 miles altogether.  But they weren’t all your typical runners.
There was one guy dressed up as a clown who called himself “T-Bone the Clown.  Another guy, known as “Flower Man” was dressed as a big beautiful sunflower.  And then there were 13 other people all lined up one behind another dressed as a 26-legged centipede.  And, of course, along with these people were 100’s more dressed in about any type of costume one could imagine.
So there they stood at the starting line laughing and joking and having a grand old time – T-Bone the Clown, Flower Man, The Centipede and a multitude of other characters ready to run the grueling 26 plus mile race.
As a runner, when the starter’s gun goes off and the race begins it’s exciting.  Your heart is pumping and the adrenalin is flowing and it’s kind of like you’re in your own little world.  But after a while the excitement begins to disappear.  The adrenalin quits flowing and what used to be exciting and fun becomes a drag.  You hit a point in the 26 milerace where the running becomes monotonous and boring.  About half way throughyour body begin to tell you “I’m tired…and at the 20 mile marker you hit a point where you just want to quit.
If we go from the Los Angeles Marathon to the Boston Marathon, the runners are going to be dressedmuch more conservatively, but the physical and mental make up of the runners is still the same and they too get to the point where they want to quit.
In the Boston Marathon there is a hill located somewhere between the 20th and 21st mile of the run known as “Heartbreak Hill.”  It’s the last hill that runners have to climb and while it only has a gradual incline of 80 feet it is located as such a point in the race that it will truly “break a runner’s heart.”
“Heartbreak Hill” is located at a point in the race when your feet begin to feel like lead, your legs feel like they are being stabbed with knives and your lungs feel like they are filled with hot coals.  It’s located at a point where your body says “It’s time to quit.”  And your mind can hear your body talking and it agrees wholeheartedly…it is time to quit.
Runners call a place like Heartbreak Hill “hitting the wall.”  To “hit the wall” and keep going is the ultimate psychological test of a runner.  It will make you or break you.  Races are won or lost, completed or abandoned at “the wall.”
Starting a race is easy.  But finishing a race is a lot more difficult.  Finishing a race requires a lot of work – both mental and physical.  But finishing the race is what counts.
For us to change our lives from who we are now to what God wants us to be isn’t easy.  We want to change because deep down inside, we want to be like God.  We say we are going to do it every Sunday when we leave here but then the world outside seems to get in the way and pretty soon it feels like we are at “Heartbreak Hill” and we just can’t go on and we give up.
New Testament writers agree; it takes “endurance and perseverance” to run a race and finish well.  But they aren’t talking about aparticipating in a marathon.  They are talking about our spiritual life.  It takes “endurance or perseverance” to honor and finish the commitment we have made to change our spiritual lives so that we can grow closer to God.
For us to spiritually transform ourselves from who we are to who we want to beis time consuming.  It is a never ending commitment that takes endurance and perseverance to get from where we are in our spiritual lives today to where we want to be in the future.
The writer of Hebrews tells us that the Christian life is a hard life.  It’s a life that is constantly bombarded with sin from the time we get up in the morning till the time we go to bed at night.  But we are also told that we can overcome it all …but we can’t do it all at one time.  We have to do it gradually – a little bit at a time. We have to run a race of patience, perseverance and endurance to get where we want to be spiritually.  
We have to train for our spiritual life just like a runner trains for a race.  We start out slow…take it easy and try not to overdo it.  We grow and we advance a little bit at a time and gradually through patience, endurance and persistence, we grow stronger and stronger in our faith.
    The writer of Hebrews in chapter 12 tells us that “....we need strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily hinders our progress. And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, on whom our faith depends from start to finish.”
James tells us that we can develop endurance through the hardships that come into our lives. “Whenever trouble comes your way, let it be an opportunity for learning. For when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be strong in character and ready for anything.”
As Christians we are concerned with our spiritual growth but when we talk about spiritual growth, we don’t talk much about the pain and suffering that sometimes goes with it.But if we are going to be transformed spiritually from who we are today to who God wants us to be we need to look at how suffering and pain can benefit us like James tells us it will.
Gerald L. Sittser’swife, his daughter and hismotherwere all killed in a head on collision, and in his book “A Grace Disguised,” he writes of his struggle to make sense of this terrible tragedy that happened to him.
    He writes that, “Loss creates a barren present, as if one were sailing on a vast sea of nothingness. Those who suffer loss live suspended between a past for which they long and a future for which they hope.  They want to return to the harbor of the familiar past and recover what was lost...Or they want to sail on and discover a meaningful future that promises to bring them life again...Instead, they find themselves living in a barren present that is empty of meaning.”
You don’t have to pretend to be happy and put on a big, fake smile when you’re facing pain and suffering and hard times.  But try to look at it as a learning experience because good things can come learning experiences.  
    That’s what Jesus is telling his disciples this morning as he sends them out into the world.There are going to be some hard times; there will be rejections and there will be persecution.  But that’s one thing about Jesus…he talked about both sides of the coin equally…the world, both good and bad.  
Following Jesus is not all roses, there are also some thorns. But at the same time, all experiences from following Jesus can be learning experiences, experiences that can be used to strengthen our faith.
We also need to remember that no matter what life throws at us God is there to watch over us.  God is continually there to comfort us. And knowing that God is continually there throughout those tough times can teach us perseverance.  It can teach us that we can make it through anything life throws at us.  
God wants us to use these times of pain and suffering not as times of being down and out but as times to grow and mature spiritually- to strengthen our relationship with him, by learning to trust him and to never giving up and to know that he is always going to be with us no matter what the outcome.
The 11th Chapter of Hebrews is filled with people who led lives that were filled with faith. It tells about people who went through some very difficult times yet persevered and learned from their experience.It’s filled with people who ran the race of life and “hit the wall on Heartbreak Hill” but they kept right on going in their quest to follow God.  
God said to Abraham, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering…” (Genesis 22:2).
“Take your son up on the hill and sacrifice him to me.”  Can you imagine how Abraham must have felt?  The road to Mt. Moriah must have been like running up Heartbreak Hill and hitting “the wall” wouldn’t it?  Maybe Abraham’smind was telling him, “I can’t take anymore.  Maybe it’s time to quit.  It’s just not worth it.”  
Abraham was about to give up his son, the thing he loved most in the world.Plus, Isaac was not only Abraham’s hope for the future but also Israel’s hope for the future.  In fact, he was mankind’s hope for the future.  Isaac was the “ancestor of a multitude of nations” and God said “Sacrifice him.”
SoAbraham packed up everything he needed and made his way up the hill.  He went past Heartbreak Hill, he went past the point of no return, and from that point forward everything he did, he did on faith.
But Abraham had always been a man of faith from the very beginning.  He did everything based on his obedience to God.  And the more he got involved with God the stronger his faith grew.
Little by little, throughout his lifetime, Abraham’s faith grew stronger and stronger just like a runner who trains and trains to get ready for the 26 mile marathon.And now God calls again and says “take your son, your only son, the son whom you love, and sacrifice him to me on a mountain top.”And Abraham went.
This was the moment Abraham had trained for.  He had been through all sorts of hard times since the day he answered God’s call and left all the comforts of his home on the Euphrates River.  But through all of this, through the good times and the bad, little by little his endurance and his perseverance had grown over the years because of his spiritual training – because of his faith in God.
For Abraham the road to Mt. Moriah could have been like hitting Heartbreak Hill in the Boston Marathon.  But it wasn’t.  You see that was the day Abraham kicked into high gear.  That was the day all the spiritual training he had done in the past paid off and he went around “the wall” and was bound and determined to finish the race under God’s guidance.
God understands what it’s like to “hit the wall” or walk up Mt. Moriah.  He’s been to his own “Heartbreak Hill” and to his own Mt. Moriah.  He knows what it’s like to suffer and hurt and to have your endurance tested because he suffered and hurt as Jesus hung upon the cross.  That’s why he comes to us when we hurt – because he’s felt that same hurt and pain.
Somewhere in our lives we are going to be faced with climbing “Heartbreak Hill, with “hitting the wall” or having to climb our own Mt. Moriah.  We will all face our own suffering and hardship.  That’s the day when our spiritual perseverance will be tested.  When what we’ve learned and what we’ve done in the past will come to the forefront.
    When that day comes…how will you run the race?
Will you quit or will you test yourspiritual endurance and kick into high gear and keep going?Will you quit or will you fall back on your spiritual perseverance?Will you finish well?When that time comes will you keep the faith?