Like many kids, I tried out for various sports. When I was in the fifth grade, I played basketball. I didn’t do well. I couldn’t shoot or dribble. The rest of the team wasn’t good either. We lost every game. Needless to say, I never went out for basketball again. In Jr. High, I went out for the football team. That didn’t turn out so good either. I broke my collarbone during practice and never got to play a single game. I sat on the bench the whole season.
After those two negative experiences, I didn’t compete in sports for several years. I became fat and lazy, and I didn’t feel good about myself. A few years after high school I gained a lot of weight. I weighed over two-hundred pounds. I was thirty pounds overweight. I really didn’t like being fat and was not happy. I knew I needed to do something about my weight problem, so I changed my eating habits and started exercising. I ate better, exercised, and lost weight. I felt better about myself, and my outlook on life became positive.
My favorite exercise was running. Running became a huge part of my life. I loved to run. I entered my first running race in 1987. I didn’t do that great, but it was the first of many races, and after a while, I began to improve. Although I was never a champion runner, I did well in most of my races. My average pace was seven and a half minute mile.
I ran regularly for over twenty years, but as I got older, I suffered knee injuries and eventually had to stop running. Since I couldn’t run, I took up cycling. It wasn’t long before I was into long-distance cycling. Today, I average about 3,600 miles a year. That’s 300 miles a month or 70 miles a week.
Running and cycling have been a huge part of my life not only because I enjoy the physical activity and the challenge, but also because they helped me to find God.
You might be wondering: How did running help me find God? What is the relationship between running and having faith in God? It happened like this: I worked hard to train my body. I lost weight and felt strong. These positive improvements in my physical and mental health led me to start thinking about my spiritual life.
Running was part of the process that helped me find God because it helped me to be more optimistic about life. Unlike the bad experiences of being on a losing basketball team or never getting off the bench to play football, running and cycling were activities that helped me feel good about myself. Running and cycling gave me a positive outlook which eventually led me to God. Even though I didn’t know it at the time, I was literally running towards God!
Through the Bible, I learned that Jesus had died to forgive my sins, and if I believed in Jesus he would give me new life. I believed in Jesus and found God.
You don’t have to be a runner or a cyclist to find God, but let me suggest that you should be moving in a positive direction. You need to engage in positive activities that will keep your mind and your body healthy. Try to eat right, get the right amount of sleep, and exercise regularly. If you take these positive steps, your health will improve. You’ll feel good about yourself, and this positive attitude may be the first step that gets you on the path that leads to God.
Something interesting happens when you find God. God helps you to be a better person. When God is part of your life, you’ll have hope for a better tomorrow. When God is in your life, you’ll be able to do things you never thought possible. Before I met God, I was not very outgoing. I had a few close friends but other than that I pretty much stuck to myself. After I met God, he helped me to be more outgoing. God changed me from being a self-absorbed loner into a person who cares about others. I went to college and seminary where I learned how to teach and preach the Bible. I became a pastor in a church, and God gave me the courage to get up and stand in front of a crowd of people and preach the Bible every Sunday morning.
God has put me on the path that leads to life and now I run a new kind of race. The Bible says, “Let’s rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with endurance the race that is set before us (Hebrews 12:1).” This race refers to the Christian life. God doesn’t want us to sit around and stagnate. God wants us to keep moving forward, as the Apostle Paul said: “One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:13-14).”
Does this verse describe your life? Are you stuck in the past or are you moving forward? If you’re not moving forward, let me suggest that you get moving. If you are not doing something positive to keep healthy, then one of the first steps you should take is to improve your physical health. You need to take care of your body. I’ve seen way too many unhealthy Christians, and I can’t help but think that their poor physical health adversely affects their spiritual health.
The Bible shows the corollary between having a strong spiritual life and having good physical health. The Bible says:
Do you not know? Have you not heard?
The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth
Does not become weary or tired
His understanding is inscrutable.
He gives strength to the weary,
And to him who lacks might He increases power.
Though youths grow weary and tired,
And vigorous young men stumble badly,
Yet those who wait for the LORD
Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles,
They will run and not get tired,
They will walk and not become weary.
(Isaiah 40:28-31)
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