I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved His appearing.
2 Timothy 6:7-8
So far we’ve covered the definition of faith, the basic tenets of the Christian faith, the authenticity of Orthodoxy, and the challenge of making time for the faith. Today’s challenge is actually keeping the faith for our entire life. If I were to choose an epitaph for my future headstone, it would be 2 Timothy 6:7: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Keeping the faith in all seasons and circumstances of life is our goal. And it’s hard. Faith is challenged constantly, by the other things we will discuss in this unit. And it takes a special kind of perseverance to keep walking in a faithful manner, despite the gauntlet of challenges that even the most devout Christian will encounter.
It is helpful to think of the journey of the Christian life as more of a marathon than a sprint. We have to pace ourselves. There is the temptation that when one first discovers the faith, or for those who have been Orthodox their whole lives, when it finally becomes personal, to dive in with great intensity. The problem is that one can only be intense about anything for short bursts. And when one is too intense, there is burnout and fatigue—yes, there can be spiritual fatigue—so that one stops, or takes a long rest.
Many of us have read the children’s fable “The Tortoise and the Hare.” In the story, the hare and the tortoise are in a race—the hare of course takes a big lead, and whether he is tired, or complacent, he falls asleep. The tortoise walks slowly, as best as he can, ignoring the speed (and taunts) of the hare. Eventually he passes the sleeping hare, who wakes up to see the tortoise about to cross the finish line ahead of him. The moral of the story is: slow and steady wins the race.
The Christian life is not a race against other people. If anything, it is a race against ourselves, and the challenges and temptations that threaten to take us off course. “Slow and steady wins the race” is a great motto for Christians, because this “race” is a marathon, not a sprint. A marathon is 26 miles. A marathon runner doesn’t focus on all 26 miles, but rather runs at a steady pace he or she is able to maintain. They actually think about the speed of each mile. If a marathon runner wants to complete the race in three hours, they need to run each mile in just under seven minutes. Thus, the runner doesn’t focus on the three-hour mark, but on the seven minute mark. They know if they run each mile in just under seven minutes, they will make their hoped-for time. If they run a smile slower than seven minutes, they will correct and try to make up some time. If they run faster than seven minutes, they will know there is a margin if a mile is slower, or, they might actually slow down, knowing that they can sustain a seven-minute per mile pace but trying to go faster might actually wear them down long before the end. In the “race” of our Christian life, it is good to remember the marathon.
It doesn’t do much to go so in on Christianity that we burn out from it. During the course of my ministry, I’ve known people who have heavily invested in the Church, coming to every service, intensely fasting, coming to multiple Bible studies a week, who eventually faded away from the Church entirely. Perhaps they could not sustain the intensity of how they were practicing, or perhaps they became disillusioned because others were not as intense. There are other people I’ve been privileged to meet, some of who are older and slowing down, but who maintain a consistent presence in worship, often coming not only on Sundays but on weekday services. They don’t have the vitality or intensity of youth, and move more like the tortoise than the hare, but these have always impressed me. It’s like they have their slow and steady as they approach the finish line of their race.
I’ve been a life-long baseball fan, and the baseball season is also like a marathon. It is 162 games played over the course of six months, so there is a game almost every day. Good teams don’t get over-hyped by a win, or too down-in-the-dumps about a loss because regardless of what happened today, there is another game tomorrow. There is a saying that “you have to have a short memory to play in the major leagues,” because the season is all about today. And you might say that the same thing is true in Christianity. Whether yesterday was a good day or a bad one, today is a new day, there is a new “game” to be played (a new set of opportunities to serve God and challenges that will keep us from doing those). Thus, the best way to live our Christianity is actually a day at a time, because the race is a marathon, not a sprint, and in order to finish the race, we need to fight a good fight and keep the faith on a daily basis.
Lord, thank You for this day, and whatever opportunities and challenges it may bring. Help me to be present today, and to remember that this journey of Christianity is a marathon, not a sprint. Help me not to get too high or too low, not to dwell on the mistakes of yesterday or the worries of tomorrow. Help me to run my race for you today, and to be consistent in not only my Christian journey, but in having joy in it. Amen.
Run “your race” today, remembering that you are only running against yourself, and that slow and steady is what it takes to win.
