Onward & Upward

Marathon runners talk about something called “the wall.” It’s the point that comes to nearly every runner at some point in the 26.2 mile run. It is at the intersection of a tired body and a tired mind. Suddenly the run goes from being pretty hard to really, really hard. Everything in you says: quit.

We all “hit the wall” at various times in our life. In a marathon, they prepare you for it. In real life, it stalls us.

when disappointment piles on disappointment / frustration on frustration

when grief overwhelms

when we prayers are unanswered

when finishing seems impossible

when starting seems pointless

There’s another kind of wall. After finishing, living in the past—inactive, sluggish, and complacent.

Couch-potato faith / spirituality (a person who spends little or no time exercising and a great deal of time watching Netflix).

“for your progress and joy in the faith” (1:25)

How to beat the wall

In the middle of Paul’s letter to the Philippian church, he has told them about his marathon-goal of his faith. Then, he writes as a man who familiar with marathons—who knows all about the wall—and he gives us a message to meet our walls with.

Philippians 3:12–16 ESV

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

“think this way” - mindset / mature Christian thinking, taking care not regress — progress in the faith. Three things you need to beat the wall:

1. Goals

The trouble with not having a goal is you can spend your life running up and down the field and never score. - Bill Copeland

“to make it my own” / “to what lies ahead” / “toward the goal.. the prize of the upward call of God.”

To know Christ. To be Christlike (mature/perfect). To be with Christ in the resurrection. Heaven.

In the Greek games, an official would call the winner of an event up to be awarded the prize. Paul may be referring to this, as if to say “I’m running for that moment when I will stand before my God and receive the heavenly reward.”

2 Peter 1:5–8 ESV

For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

2. Grit

Grit: a combination of passion and perseverance that keeps you locked in on an goal for a long period of time.

Endurance. Perseverance. Stick-to-itivness. A never-give-up attitude. Relentless.

I’m not their yet, BUT this one thing I do: I press on

Pressing on has two components for Paul:

Forgetting: Not an inability to call something to mind, but the discipline of mind to not dwell on the past. He intentionally forgot.

negative (failure and shame) / positive (good ol’ days, trophies)

Straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on...

“Paul portrays himself in the least relaxed, most demanding posture he knows: as a runner in a race. His language is vivid, tense, repetitious: pressing, stretching, pushing, straining. In those words the lungs burn, the temples pound, the muscles ache, the heart pumps, the perspiration rolls.” Fred Craddock.

Neither the awareness of him imperfections or the sense of accomplishment from the ‘good ol’ days’ stop Paul from straining toward the future.

Paul is determined to run the race all the way to the finish line.

Paul inspires grit: “passionate perseverance” in the life of faith.

“To be gritty is to keep putting one foot in front of the other. To be gritty is to hold fast to an interesting and purposeful goal. To be gritty is to invest, day after week after year, in challenging practice. To be gritty is to fall down seven times, and rise eight.” —Angela Duckworth

Do you know what they tell you to do when you hit the wall in a marathon: keep going!

65-year marriages (real love has grit)

difficulties of aging (going to church takes grit)

grief, disease, heartache, spiritual desert (gritty faithfulness)

3. Grace

Paul writes as one fully aware of his own imperfection.

He runs as one who has been first taken hold of by Christ.

Philippians 3:12 ESV

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Video that was highlighted on the news several months back. It was filmed just as young woman neared the finish line in a marathon. Her legs gave out. Two other runners grabbed her arms and kept her on her feet, inching forward until she could go no further. Then another man ran over and picked her up and carried her across. One man even raised her arm in victory as she crossed—seemingly unaware of his own victory.