I used to be a runner.
I ran almost every day and planned my Saturdays around higher mileage long runs. I cross-trained on my days off and organized my family’s evening meals around what kind of run was on my schedule the next morning. I had all the weird accouterments that runners like to collect: a handheld water bottle, energy gels (that were scheduled at mile 6 and 9), the ever-present Garmin watch, and one of those runner’s belts that was really just a glorified fanny pack to hold my house key and my iPod.
I was training for my first full marathon and settling into double digit runs when a stress fracture set me on the sidelines for several months. Eventually, the onset of an autoimmune disease and the arrival of our second son removed me from the running world altogether. More than three years have passed since I could calculate the longest route through my neighborhood that would allow me to run a full nine miles close to home.
Running was a disciplined activity for me. It required rest, regular stretching, wise food and drink choices, and mental stamina to make it through a run when my heart wasn’t in it. I’ve been making a slow return to my previous running life, and it has been difficult. Though I am slowly adding mileage to my long runs, a three-mile run at 6 a.m. on a weekday for training is the best I can muster. Three miles used to be my warm-up! It’s been a humbling process to factor in my age, my fatigue, and my severe loss of physical fitness. My motivation, though, is to find myself running down my favorite long road next to the cotton fields on a hot summer day and feeling the flood of endorphins that show up right after mile five. But I’ll never get there without training for it.
I really didn’t feel like going for my run this morning. My head was cloudy with discouragement, and my prayer and Bible reading before dawn had seemed pretty fruitless. I’d yawned my way through 1 Peter, and my prayer time resembled staring at the wall more than a conversation with the Almighty. I’d really wanted to skip both the Bible study time and the run, to be perfectly honest. The only thing that sounded appealing was a return to my bed.
But, I knew that my heart needed the daily rearming of the gospel and my body needed the return of muscle memory, so I met with the Lord and went for my run though both my heart and my body protested. Sometimes discipline and perseverance look like the same thing, but you press through it because it’s the only way forward. You lace up your running shoes when it’s the last thing you feel like doing because you want to be a runner again. Or you open your Bible even though the words don’t seem to penetrate your heart because you know that this is how you spend time knowing the Lord. You pray though your petitions fall flat because you know God is more faithful to hear you than you are to talk to Him.
“But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may mature and complete, lacking in nothing.” James 1:4
Perseverance does its best work when the heart resists. It doesn’t blossom when life is easy or trouble-free but rather when everything rubs against it. By definition, perseverance is “continued effort to do or achieve something despite difficulties, failure, or opposition.” My physical lethargy this morning cannot be the reason I skip my runs. If endurance and fitness are my goals, then I must do the work to get to them. Similarly, my spiritual life requires an investment of time and devotion to the Lord and His word even, and especially, when my affections are lagging behind. Perseverance means doing the work on the days I least want to.
I will never accidentally become a distance runner again without training. And I will never drift toward holiness without meaning to. Perseverance must complete its work, and it requires discipline to do so. (Ja. 1:3-4)
I will never drift toward holiness without meaning to. Perseverance must complete its work, and it requires discipline to do so. Share on XI understand that spiritual lethargy feels real, but if you find yourself struggling to dig up the desire to study the Scriptures or to spend intentional time in prayer, it would be helpful to evaluate your long-term goals. Do you desire to grow in godliness? Do you want to know the God who has revealed Himself to us in Scripture? Do you want to see sin wither in your life? Do you want to be able to articulate the hope of the gospel to the unbelieving people in your life? Then you are going to have to become a disciplined person who plans their days around these long-term goals.
It’s unlikely that you will randomly wake up an hour earlier to meet with the Lord without planning to do so. Like a runner knows the value of the regular early morning training runs, the Christian must take the long view of sanctification. We won’t randomly become more like Christ if we live our lives distant from the Word of God. The Bible has the power to transform our hearts and change the way we think. Close study of God’s character has the likely potential to turn up the fruit of godliness in our lives. We become like Him by regularly beholding Him.
But that won’t happen apart from a determined plan to organize your life around beholding Him. Because God has chosen to reveal Himself to us in a book, we must make close and prayerful examination of that book a non-negotiable part of our days.
These days, I lay out my running clothes and charge my Garmin watch before I go to bed. I also make sure my Bible and notebooks are set in the same spot and make sure the coffee pot is set to percolate in time for my study and prayer time. Perseverance and discipline do look a lot alike to me these days. Intentionally pressing forward means fighting my laziness both physically and spiritually. It means resisting my resistance. It took many months for me to become a regular runner, and it likely will take longer this time around. It also took years for my mornings to become devoted to the Lord, but I have to tell you I will never regret a moment of lost sleep to spend time in study or prayer. No contact with the Word is wasted, no matter how distant my heart my feel.
If you’re struggling to keep a commitment to behold the Lord regularly, remember that you are not alone in this because you are learning to know and love a Person. The good news is that our sanctification is not completely on our shoulders. While we are doing the work of perseverance by dragging ourselves out of bed and pressing our hearts against the Scriptures each morning, God is the One persevering us and meeting us more faithfully than this morning’s sunrise.
“Like newborn infants, desire the pure spiritual milk, so that you may grow by it for your salvation, since you have tasted that the Lord is good.” 1 Peter 2:2-3
Running Photo by Andrew Tanglao on Unsplash
Glenna Marshall is married to her pastor, William, and lives in rural Southeast Missouri where she tries and fails to keep up with her two energetic sons. She is the author of The Promise is His Presence (P&R) and Everyday Faithfulness (Crossway), and Memorizing Scripture (Moody). Connect with her on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.
