Recently, I have been supporting a friend, Amber, who was preparing to run her first marathon. Through texts and social media, I held Amber accountable to her training plan, gave her encouragement on the days that seemed more challenging, and cheered her along the way. Well, two weekend ago, she ran that marathon and crushed it. In her words, she didn’t complete it with ease. But, the training she endured allowed her to achieve her goal.
This past weekend in worship, we heard Jesus say at the end of our Gospel lesson, “By your endurance you will gain your souls.” (Luke 21:19) Much as we’d maybe like to have endurance with the snap of the fingers, to build up endurance takes time. And, it takes energy. I’m sure Amber would’ve loved to get up one day and run a full marathon. And yet, only a very select few have the capacity to do so.
So if it takes time to develop endurance physically, should we expect anything less spiritually? A colleague of mine said it this way this week: “As disciples of Jesus, we train. We learn various practices that strengthen our faith. And, we do those things when we’re healthy, so that when crisis hits, we have something to fall back on.” Sometimes, it may seem easier to turn to our faith when we are seeking something or when we feel uncertain. But it’s also in the everyday, “normal” moments that we are summoned to exercise our faith and build our spiritual muscles.
So this week, think about the “exercises” that you practice for your faith life. Just as much as we are encouraged to establish a rhythm of exercise, a healthy diet, and rest, so too are we encouraged as disciples of Jesus to establish a rhythm of connecting with our God.