"Being Marathoners, Not Sprinters"

"As I write this Preface I have just preached to my people several messages in which I pleaded with them to be ‘coronary Christians,’ not ‘adrenal Christians.’ Not that adrenaline is bad, I said; it gets me through lots of Sundays. But it lets you down on Mondays. The heart is another kind of friend. It just keeps on serving—very quietly, through good days and bad days, happy and sad, high and low, appreciated and unappreciated. It never says, ‘I don’t like your attitude, Piper, I’m taking a day off.’ It just keeps humbly lub-dubbing along. It endures the way adrenaline doesn’t. Coronary Christians are like the heart in the causes they serve. Adrenal Christians are like adrenaline—a spurt of energy and then fatigue. What we need in the cause of... [insert what applies] is not spurts of energy, but people who endure for the long haul. Marathoners, not sprinters.”

Last week I came across this quote. It's from "The Roots of Endurance" by John Piper and it definitely made me think about how I live my life. In 1 Corin 9:24-27 it says "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control". In this scripture in says that an athlete exercises self-control, so in light of that, it would be foolish for me to spend all my energy on the first part of a race if I had very far to go. Also, in a race, the primary organ that keeps you going is the heart. How important is it then to take care of the heart to make sure it will get you through the race?! Piper speaks about our needing to be "coronary Christians". Coronary meaning of or pertaining to the human heart. God has impressed upon me the importance of feeding my heart with His truths everyday, in order to make it through this race of life. Life is our race. Death our finish line. I am praying for an increased desire to receive the prize of an eternity spent with God and for strength and endurance to run this race and finish it having glorified Him!

-Lana-