Following Jesus is like running a marathon? Have you run one?

"I can do that".
These are the words behind God's call that most folks see as the Great Commission and the Great Commandment. We can break it down like this:

Be intentional
Be sacrificial
Be sustainable 

Once we are called to God, we are given choices. We can love or not, we can obey his words or not, we can forgive or not. We will be forced to make hard choices. We must love those who not only love us, but those who hate us. It goes to reason then that we must not only know of, but be involved in the lives of those who hate us. Do you? Be intentional.

We are called to live lives of selfless compassion and mercy, emulating the life of Jesus. This will force us to write down acts of mercy into our planners and if need use two alarms on our smart phones. Do you have "visit the prison" next to "so-and-so's playdate on your dry erase calender? When you shop, do you pick up the extra items on your list for the food bank? Do you not do something you enjoy so that you can care for another? Be sacrificial.

We are called to this life for the long-haul. I am a distance runner and have heard the cliche over and over that the life of following Jesus is a marathon, not a sprint. But here is a tip from a guy who actually has run 8 of them; we train hard for months before the race, logging in literally hundreds of miles. We run in the rain because the race day may rain. We run at night if we have kids and a job. We wake up at 6am on weekends so that we can get in a three hour run before it gets too hot.

Our families give up time so that we can compete.

During the race we may puke, pass-out, or get injured. You will use products so that you will not chafe parts of your bodies but you will bleed. You will want to quit when you hit a "wall" and your mind and body says stop. You will have to stay hydrated and fed so you try and balance and keep ahead of the game. If not you will cramp, HARD.

The next day, if you ran hard, you will experience Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness. It will be hard to walk and most will have to walk down stairs backwards. It will take days to recover but you will not die.

Now most of you are saying "why do it?" The apostle Paul was quick to point out that we are just wired to do things like run and complete. We all do (see here).

Being a distance runner is a lifestyle. We make choices about what to eat, how long to sleep, and how to train. Following Jesus is the same. We think we can just do enough like read and pray and go to church sometimes and then jump in and run the marathon it is.

We must make this a sustainable life.
We must see that it is like a marathon, but marathons are "NOT long easy runs". They are  painful and costly.
Take these tips to run sustainably:
1. Be intentional and focus
2. Be sacrificial and put in the hard work
3. Be sustainable and rest when you need to, run hard when you have to. Remember, resting is NOT passive, it is actively choosing to trust. 

When we have completed the race, we will gain the prize and you will have new bodies. We will be with Jesus. We do NOT run hard so that we will be rewarded for our hard running. We simply run hard because the run IS hard. Jesus finished the race and gave us his medal. Do not kid yourself.
Run in such a way so that you will have nothing left when you cross the line. Why?
This is how Jesus ran and how he asks us to