This month my spiritual discipline has been exercising. I’ve decided that it’s about goal setting. I made a goal last week to be able to complete a 5 k within a ½ hour, and I’ve achieved it. My goal is now to work on being able to do the same run, without feeling like I’m dying. You should have seen me when I finished the first goal of a 5k in ½ an hour, I was clinging to the bars of the treadmill with all my might and trying not to look around to see if other people were noticing me make a fool of myself. The mantra in my head has become “just a little better today.” It’s happening, every day, I’m getting a little better.
What if we all woke up every morning and thought to ourselves “today my goal is to live in a Christ-like way…or at least get a little better at it.” What if instead of trying to become Mother Teresa tomorrow we all decided that we were going to be kinder and gentler with people that get on our nerves…slowly but surely. The challenge of the Christian life is that nobody ever “gets it” we all struggle. We all, at some point, look like me clinging to the rails of a treadmill. This is where grace comes in, God sees our struggles to be loving graceful people and calls us to try again tomorrow. The more we follow the call to live and love the easier it becomes to do. In what way do you feel you need to more Christ-like? Is it how you treat others, yourself, the environment? In what ways can you practice running the race and not feel like you are dying?
Blessings
Justin
