As I have been pondering the unique, sacred, specialness of God’s Church it has brought to mind a book which I read last March entitled: “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall. It was a delightful book which I thoroughly enjoyed!
The author of the book, a runner himself, became fascinated by the super-running powers of the Tarahumara people of Mexico. He decided to set up a race down in Mexico pitting the best of the Tarahumara runners against the greatest endurance marathon runners of the US at the time.
The author assembled a team of the greatest of the greats in endurance marathon running, and together they all traveled down to Mexico to participate in this epic race!
The great race was the climax at the very end of the book!
What I found so fascinating, as I read the account of the great race, is that even though each of the athletes (both Tarahumara and US ultra-marathoners) were in fierce competition against each other, there was still a deep bond of camaraderie and brotherhood between them! Yes they ran hard to outrun each other! But they also cared deeply for each other!
The author, by his own admission, was not a top endurance athlete, but he too ran the race just for the fun of it. There was an 86 yr. old Tarahumara elder who ran the race, even though in deep grief over the recent loss of his son.
The runners who could not keep up with the leaders were in no way shamed for being “less than.” They were cheered and encouraged just like the rest! And even though the author wound up as the very last runner out in the canyons as darkness fell, everyone else came out to light the path and show the way to the finish, cheering him in to cross the finish line! It made a difference! It made a huge difference for the author! He was so weary and depleted that he honestly didn’t think he could make it to the finish line. But the encouragement of all the other runners helped him to dig deep and push that last bit to make it to the finish line. Their encouragement gave him strength to finish!
In this great race, at the end of the book, everyone was considered a winner! And everyone cheered everyone else on!
This is such a beautiful picture of what God’s Church is like! The Bible compares living the Christian life to running a race.
If we are a follower of Jesus Christ, we are a runner.
Just like the great race in Mexico between the Tarahumara and the greatest of the greats in endurance marathons … it doesn’t matter that some of us (like the Tarahumara) have been quietly following Jesus for years in our own quiet unseen corners of life, or that some of us are the “greatest of the greats” (like the ultra-marathon greats) when it comes to following Jesus, or perhaps some of us are like the grieving Tarahumara elder and we are running our race even though we are crushed with deep grief, or like the author of the story some of us are fairly new to following Jesus and we’re just trying to get our “runners legs” under us.
We are all runners! And our efforts matter!
As God’s Church, we are a brotherhood of runners!
Just like the runners looked after each other on the race, so also as we “run the race” of following Jesus, we likewise look after our “fellow runners.” We are a brotherhood, so we look out for each other!
Just like the runners on the race helped each other out if they were running low on water, so also as we “run the race” following Jesus, we help each other out if we see our “fellow runner” who is almost out of water. We share some of our water with them, we run alongside and pace them for a while, we make sure they make it to the next water source. We look out for each other!
In the story, the author as well as two other runners (on a training run) almost got desperately lost in the wild canyonlands of the Tarahumara people. The other runners came back out to search for them!
This is what the Church does! This is what Jesus-followers do! If one of our “fellow runners” is out there running the race and it seems like they might be getting lost out there in the confusing canyonlands of life without direction … we go after them! We go find them! We head out to search for them even though night is falling … because their safety matters! They matter!
Perhaps you might have found yourself wondering from time to time: “Why Church??”
Because God’s Church is a very special sacred brotherhood of “fellow runners.” We are in this together! We look out for each other! We help each other! We encourage each other! We light the way for each other! And we go out and find each other if one of us happens to accidentally get lost along life’s course!
“Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.” – Hebrews 12:1
The Church, God’s people, is a very sacred and special thing!
God loves His Church!!
