The Spiritual Implications of Running and Teaching and Reading and Praying

The following is a modification of parts of a letter I recently wrote to a friend. Since a lot of what I’ve been thinking about came out in the letter, I thought it would be helpful to share it with some of my other friends.

I’m not going to go off on how teaching school is my ministry field, as I totally don’t believe that. While I may have opportunities to directly share bits and pieces of the gospel and indirectly portray a (hopefully, ideally, yet tragically not commonly) Christ-like life, there’s more to it. I’ve found for me that as I grow as a teacher, I also grow as a person. When I challenge myself to be more patient with obnoxious adolescents, I end up becoming more patient with obnoxious adults. When I challenge my band to play harder music, I begin to see room for greater discipline in various areas of my life.

So I began running back in January. I called it running, but it was more of a slightly faster-paced walk. In March, I began really running. At least it was more of a shuffle than a walk. Now, I’m trying to increase the speed. All this has really begun to help me as I see various sinful tendencies in my life. As I push harder to finish my 5-minutes of running or whatever, it strengthens the resolve in me to push harder to not eat the empanadas that some wonderful band parents brought up to me. Pineapple empanadas, no less. Or to resist the urge to yell at a kid for not being quiet as fast as I want him to. Or whatever.

Discipline in one area leads to an easier time developing discipline in other areas. This has been one of the greatest challenges in my life over the past few years. Undisciplined living is the underlying cause of almost every failure I have experienced in recent memory.

So that’s it? Just now that I’m running, I’m going to be better off. Oh, that it were that simple. But it has revealed something to me. Something amazing. Something I once knew, but didn’t know why I knew it. Are you ready?

Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it [are] the issues of life. — Proverbs 4:23

See, discipline is the key to life. It’s so vital that we live according to a plan. Keeping our heart, guarding our heart, defending our heart — that is absolutely the most important thing we can do as people.

How do we do that?

But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. – 1 Corinthians 9:27

Clearly, this doesn’t mean we have to start planning to run a marathon, but it does mean that we need to be careful what we allow into both our minds and our bodies. When I’m running, all I can do is pray for strength to continue on. Because I know the plan will get me to where I want to go. It’s a slow process, but the process works. After I finish running and my body begins to recover, I can focus more on the spiritual aspects of the larger scheme of what I’m doing. And it’s awesome.

My mind is clearer than it has been in years. I don’t feel depressed most of the time. I have something to look forward to that I know is making me stronger — physically, psychologically, and spiritually.

So I mentioned above that it is vital that we live according to a plan. Sure my running program is helping me, and I’m slowly following Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace plan. But what about an overall life plan. It’s very very simple, and yet I know I have trouble maintaining it on an ongoing basis. Perhaps you know it too, but this little blog post thing can hopefully serve to encourage you to either get back on track or to stick with what you’re doing. It’s easy to lose sight of the fact that it really will work if you just stick to it. The plan?

Read the Bible and pray every single day. As you take care of the depth of your devotional life, God will take care of the breadth of your ministry.

22-Day New Testament Reading Plan

We began “Octoberfast” today in my church. For the next three weeks, we we will be fasting and praying corporately.

Because I have been extremely sick lately, I am not going to begin completely abstaining from food right away, but I have decided that one of the key projects I will accomplish in this 21-day period is to reread the New Testament. I’ve included my reading plan for the next 22 days here. I’m aiming for about 12 chapters a day and will break that up throughout the day. The plan is:

22-Day Bible Reading Plan

October 4
Matthew 1-12

October 5
Matthew 13-24

October 6
Matthew 25-Mark 8

October 7
Mark 9-Luke 4

October 8
Luke 5-16

October 9
Luke 17-John 3

October 10
John 4-9

October 11
John 10-21

October 12
Acts 1-12

October 13
Acts 13-24

October 14
Acts 25-Romans 8

October 15
Romans 9-1 Corinthians 8

October 16
1 Corinthians 9-2 Corinthians 4

October 17
2 Corinthians 5-13

October 18
Galatians 1-Ephesians 6

October 19
Philippians 1-1 Thessalonians 5

October 20
2 Thessalonians 1-2 Timothy 4

October 21
Titus 1-Hebrews 8

October 22
Hebrews 9-1 Peter 5

October 23
2 Peter 1-Jude

October 24
Revelation 1-11

October 25
Revelation 12-22

A quick note that since I am a band director and have marching contests the next two Saturdays, I am making those Saturday readings a little shorter than the other days.

What about you? What cool things are you going to do this month?

Enough Is Enough!

I’ve had it!

I’m fed up with my dumb self.

My desire to know everything, to keep with everything, to have everything, to experience everything. It’s time to call it quits. It’s time to count the cost and pursue holiness anyway.

A year and a half of unfulfilled promises
Looking back at my blog post from December 25th, I see that most of my planning and aim to reduce my debt has gone by the wayside. I still weigh as much as I did at the beginning of the year. I don’t spend any more time regularly in prayer or Bible study now than I did back then. I’m not married or even heading in that direction.

Basically, 2009 has been pretty bleak for me in a lot of ways. In fact, it doesn’t only start there. Even in June 2008, I was seeing that things were out of control. I think it goes back even further than that.

Granted, things did change for the positive over the summer as I began to see a glimmer of hope. I began playing piano at a new church where my good friend Greg is the pastor, and that is turning out to be an exciting process. We are starting to see some growth in the church, both in numbers as well as in life within the fellowship.

Sadly, when I survey the state of the American church, comfort and excess have replaced giving and sacrifice as Christian virtues in the 21st century. The mantra of contemporary Christian circles seems to be “Man’s chief end is to get lots of stuff, end enjoy it for ever. And be sure there’s good air conditioning and comfortable seats in church while you’re at it!” The Puritans taught us that “Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy Him for ever.” Quite a discrepancy.

Well, I’m tired of the stuff. I’m tired of distractions. I’m tired of clutter in my life – physically, emotionally, psychologically, spiritually. I grow weary of the undisciplined nature of my current state of existence. It’s time for a change.

This morning, Pastor Greg read a little bit out of E.M. Bounds book The Weapon of Prayer. I’ve read his book Power Through Prayer a few times and every time I read it, I am convicted of my woeful lack of prayer. This week, I will work my way through The Weapon of Prayer. I’ll also focus more of my time on prayer. Real prayer, not the superficial stuff.

My online life takes up too much of my time. My iPhone provides more distractions than I even know what to do with. So it is time to move forward. Instead of feeling like a victim of my circumstances, I’m going to take control. In the next three and a half months, I will regain control and discipline in my life.

Fasting will be a huge part
In the process of regaining control, I must regularly deny the flesh through fasting. For the most part, these will be day-long water/juice fasts, though there may very well be extended fasting happening as well. This past spring, I experienced the power that fasting had in recovering my focus as I went through three 5+ day fasts. Since then, the longest I’ve gone without food has been 12-15 hours.

This is an urgent need
As easy as it would be for me to sit back (like I have for months and years even) and say that I’ll get around to it later, there is no time like the present to begin to see transformative changes in my life. No more of the “just one more time” mentality. That simply delays the inevitible. To quote Professor Harold Hill from The Music Man, “‘Pile up too many tomorrows and you’ll find that you’ve collected nothing but a bunch of empty yesterdays.” Do something now!

What you can do

• Pray for your pastor. He needs it!
• I encourage you to commit to make some changes in your life. That one nasty habit you’ve been meaning to overcome. The 10 pounds you’ve gained since college. Or the 50 pounds. Or the 100. You get the picture. Read more. Watch less.

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter:

Fear God and keep His commandments,
For this is man’s all.
For God will bring every work into judgment,
Inlcuding every secret thing,
Whether good or evil.

Ecclesiastes 12:13-14

• Encourage me. Self sacrifice is never easy. 100 days of it will be greuling for me. If you happen to see me online, encourage me and ask me how things are going. Pray for me. Tell me you are praying for me and I’ll be sure to pray for you as well.