Reflections on a day

I was just thinking back over our week away. It's funny that something so enjoyable can really become old quickly. Saturday I rode home from Breckenridge, Colorado in one day....840 miles....all on a motorcycle. It was fun for the first hour...then it was the endurance of just getting home. The same thing....mile after mile....more miles to ride. I listened to a number of sermons on my ipod, that helped, but then there are the miles....it was a long day. On a motorcycle you have to deal with the wind, the smell, the noise, the heat, the dirt of the day...you are in the middle of it all...and it's tiring.

There are times my walk with God feels the same way....like a long day on the motorcycle...hot, smelly, noisy, dirty..."when do we get there?" I wonder if the hardship of the walk of a Christian discourages some from finishing? It is hard, it is demanding...it takes work....it's dirty....and yet there is "home" at the end of the ride.

My day last Saturday started early at 6am....and I was off, heading south. It was cold, refreshing, I was rested and ready to get some miles on the bike. But hours happened, the noise happened, the cars, the heat, getting tired...it wears you down, and soon my moods and thoughts changed from a fun day on the motorcycle to an endurance test to get home.

I realize that I often do the same thing in my Christian life. I start out fresh, ready to go, and then things happen....and I lose direction, I lose focus, I get tired. Why don't I have enough sense to stop and rest? Why don't I stop...take a break....walk away from it for a bit? Probably for the same reason I would ride 840 miles in one day! I just want to get the task done....but my walk with God isn't a task.....it's an eternal relationship that has begun here on earth. I need to pace myself....realize that I need endurance....it's not all done in one day....it will take the rest of my life....

I think the one thing I realized is that I don't have to do everything today, right now...I just need to pursue my walk with God and do the next thing in front of me. I have need of endurance because the walk will take me the rest of my life....I don't need to finish it today.


Heb 10:36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.