Running for God's Glory

Growing up, I always wanted to be a runner. I loved how it felt to hear the wind rush past my ears, but I never had the skills to do so competitively, and I’m a bit of a klutz. But last year, I decided to run my first 5k. I was going to actually do it. No one understood. They respected my decision, but thought I was a bit crazy for willingly subjecting myself to running, and running a 5K, for that matter. I was determined, though. I was actually going to do it. 

October 26, the morning of the race, I stood at the starting line with everyone else and couldn’t believe I’d made it that far. I felt like an imposter, standing among all of these people in their running gear, making assumptions at how far they’d run, and how good they were, and so many other things. I stood shocked at a woman who was running the race pregnant. I was like… excuse me? I’m out here just hoping to finish and you’re growing life in you and yet you’re still here?! What a warrior! 

The race started, and I felt the emotion already bubbling up in my chest. The tears came to my eyes in the first half mile, but I told them to suck it up. We had 2.6 miles to go before we could fall apart at the wonder of this moment. I was blazing through my first mile, and got my personal record on it -- but as I was coming back up the hill, I realized I had pushed too hard at the start, and this was going to slow me down, and I was going to have to fight to the finish line. I was embarrassed, but I was not going to let anyone see me walk across that finish line, even if I fell when I finished (a 5K… yes). 

Finally, I began the last half mile and I started pushing. I was going to finish. My lungs were burning, my legs were turning to jello, but I was going to do it. I was going to finish my first 5K race. 

As I approached the finish line, I saw my friend standing near the finish line. I crossed, tired and stronger. I did it. My parents found me first, and I fell into their arms and started crying, “I did it. I did it. I did it. I did it.” I said it over and over, trying to convince myself that I had finally achieved a goal that I’d had for over a decade. 

And So What?

Now that I have achieved that goal, and it has become something I can do regularly, I’m moving toward training for a mid-distance run. And just like when I started running toward the goal of the 5K, it’s challenging, and my body is tired and achy, and I’m walking parts of it as I get stronger and build endurance. I keep practicing though because practice makes progress.

Running well requires practice -- and what’s more, as Christians, running to the glory of God is also requires practice. So what’s the difference between merely running and running to the glory of God? Does it matter? 

When we practice running, we are showing up to perform or exercise our body’s ability to run habitually or regularly in order to maintain or get better at running. A practice of running to the glory of God is applying a belief or idea rather than acting on theories surrounding it. So in this case, our practice is believing that God is glorified in us when we are satisfied with the body that he has given us and we commit to practicing running in order to strengthen our bodies. We are caring for our body and keeping it healthy; we are stewarding what God has given to us. 

How do we keep our bodies healthy? All around us there are temptations -- things we want to have, but that we know don’t make our body feel the best. I can’t speak to what those things are for you, but I can say for me, when I don’t drink water (which is quite often), my internal organs stop functioning as well as they could, and outwardly I appear sluggish and sick or tired. 

In cultivating healthy habits like eating what is nourishing to your body or doing exercise that keeps you moving, what you’re doing is building a foundation for growth and wellness. 

Do All to the Glory of God

How, then, does this have anything to do with bringing glory to God? 

Our souls are kept healthy when we spend time practicing the presence of God, when we cultivate spiritual disciplines, or spiritual habits, if you will. Things like praying or reading the Bible are like eating what is nourishing to our soul, and we are building a foundation for growth in our relationship with Christ, which is good for our soul’s wellness. 

When you practice spiritual disciplines, you learn things about your soul. You learn what the presence of God is like. You learn to recognize when what you’re seeing or experiencing is not of God or his Spirit. If you do not practice spiritual disciplines regularly, you may begin to forget and neglect time spent practicing the presence of God. You may begin to forget what it is to entrust God with everything, and your relationship with God begins to suffer. 

Similarly, when you run as a habit, you learn things about your body. You learn what feels good. You learn how it feels and what to do when something feels very wrong. When I’m dehydrated, I know within the first half mile. I can feel in my body that things are starting to hurt. I know I’m going to have either slow down, turn back early, or walk in order to finish the route I’d planned. 

So then, we can marry spiritual disciplines with physical disciplines because our time alone with the Lord is exactly that -- our time alone with the Lord. If we believe that God made all of us different, then we can also pretty safely assume that our alone time with God isn’t going to look exactly like someone else’s. And that’s okay. That’s one of the greatest parts about having the Holy Spirit dwelling inside of us. No longer is the presence of God dependent on a day, a temple, a priest. Christ made it possible for us to be in constant communion, so no matter where we are, we are not away from God’s presence. 

So by enjoying the body God gave us and doing things to strengthen our physical bodies, we can bring glory to him when we practice acknowledging him in our exercise and physical activity; we honor God by giving thanks to him for making our bodies, and giving us the physical abilities we have. Awareness and acknowledgment of the presence and person of God transforms running from a physical habit to a physical-spiritual practice. We bring glory to God when we are satisfied in the body he gave us, made in his image. 

Run the Race

In Acts 17, Paul is talking to the Areopagus when he declares, “For in him we live and move and have our being, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’ Since we are God’s offspring then, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination” (Acts 17:28-29). No, when the Word became flesh, the flesh he created, we saw the perfect image of God in human form, in the way it was always meant to be. And that same God created the human form to live, to move, and to have being. So then, we can honor God when we do precisely those things.

On that score, in Paul’s letters to the churches, he draws comparisons between the life of faith and running a race. These comparisons are drawn to encourage believers to keep persevering even though they were being persecuted, to keep their eyes focused on the true goal, which is Christ Jesus, and to practice what they were preaching to others about Jesus Christ. Running is hard and tiring work -- and so is the life of faith. But the reward of crossing the finish line is beyond worth the struggle and hardship. And though we may not all be runners, we are all called to run the race of faith, and to do all things to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). And if we do happen to be runners, then that’s yet one more thing we get to do to the glory of God.