4/4/18 – Pastor Brian’s Blog
You may or may not have noticed that I did not write a blog last week. Here’s why: I had just been released from the hospital the day before my blog usually is published. I had been not feeling well for the past few months, so I told my primary care doctor my symptoms. He told me to go and get an MRI and stress test, which led to me seeing a Cardiologist, which led to having a catheterization which led to finding out that I had 95% blockage going into the right side of my heart, and 30% blockage going into the left side of my heart.
Now, that is my excuse for not writing a blog last week and I am sticking to it!! For those of you that might be at least a little bit interested in “my personal problems”… I am doing much better this week than last week, and the future looks bright! But, as a Christian, our future is always bright!
To be honest, I had been thinking about not writing my blog any more. It does take time, (at least it does for me!) and you never know how many people are really reading it. So, I said to God, unless He showed me otherwise I think it might be time to give it a rest.
Well, I got a call last week from someone telling me that they had missed my blog and asked if I was going to continue writing. At that moment I had a choice to make. The choice was pretty clear to me: either pretend that I had forgotten about the phone call and blame it on my old age, or, take this phone call as a message from God and continue writing. Well the fact that you are reading this blog is a hint as to which choice I made.
As I have been thinking about what to write about, my mind went to running. Now you need to understand that this is not a place that my mind often goes to. When I was in high school I ran on our cross-country team. It had nothing to do with the love of running! I hated to run then, and I continue to hate running today. I hated to run so much that during practice, instead of running the cross-country course, I would take shortcuts through the woods so that I did not have to run so fast or so far. I ran not because I loved running; I ran to get ready for basketball.
Yet as I look at my life today, it seems like all I do is run. I run from this meeting to my next meeting, from one project to another. I find myself running from this event, to another event, from this activity to the next. I find my mind running through my quiet time with God, so that I can start running through the events of my day. Running! I hated it in High School and I hate it today, yet I find myself running through the day, which leads to running through the week, which turns into months, and then I look back on the years and just see a life of running!
As I was thinking through this, my mind went to Jesus. Jesus lived a very full and busy life. Jesus always had people wanting to meet with Him, wanting Him to do something for them. Jesus had expectations placed on Him that were more than any person deserved. Yet Jesus had no bus to ride, no private jet to use, no new minivan to put His disciples in, no public transportation, only sandals and a donkey to ride on a few occasions.
He had so much to do, yet, when you read the gospels and listen to those people that knew Jesus best, you will never hear how Jesus ran to anything. Jesus never ran! He always walked, and on those walks, He was always aware of everything going on around Him, and always had time for people. Even though He never ran, Jesus was able to say this at the end of His life… “I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.” John 17:4
Wow! Jesus completed the work that God gave Him to do and He never ran once to do it. What does that mean? I don’t know what it means for you, but for me, it means that if I am running and I still can’t get everything done, then it is obvious that I have taken on things God never intended for me to take on. Jesus walks and completes the work God gave Him to do. I run most of the day, and because I don’t finish my list, I begin my next day running, and because I still have things to get done, I start the next day running and… I think you see where this is going.
It doesn’t make sense that I need to walk in order to complete everything God gives me to do. Yet, if it worked for Jesus, then it must work for us because Jesus said… “I have given you an example to follow.” John 13:15
Do you know what Abraham, Enoch, Noah, Moses, Jesus, Paul & John have in common? Check it out in the Bible and you will see that they all walked with God. Nowhere in the Bible do you ever hear of Godly men, the heroes of the faith, “running” with God.
The reason that most of us live hectic lives, the reason that many of us find ourselves at the end the day with unfinished projects, the reason that many are running from one event to another, is not because we are not running fast enough. The problem is that we are not only working on the things that God has given us to do, we have added to His list of things He has given us to do.
If the great men of God could walk with God, then the secret of us becoming great men and women of God just might be to stop running and start walking. Walk with God and then it becomes much easier to see what God has waiting for us to do. Besides, if we are working on the things God wants us to do, then He will give us the time to get it done.
I am not saying that my physical heart issues were brought on because of running to much. But I do think we need to consider why we are running so much, because too much running can have devastating affects on our spiritual heart. If Jesus can accomplish everything God wanted Him to do without all the technical advances that we have, then surely, we should be able to slow down and enjoy the job God has given us to do. Besides most doctors will tell you, walking is better for you!
