Pacing ourselves

Several weeks ago, we went to a family birthday party at an establishment that had several “jumpies” for the kids. You know those large air inflated slides, mazes, and well… jumpies. I had the task of taking our two year old daughter around while she plays. I was also there in case she gets stuck in one of these toys.

We had about an hour to play before we had cake and ice cream and the birthday boy open his presents. All the kids starting to run all over the place and I was chasing our little girl. She went from jumpy to jumpy giggling and having a great time. After about a half hour, I started to get tired – but my daughter was still going with full steam. Of course the rest of the family thought this was funny and was laughing at me. To be honest with you it was funny and I was laughing with them. It must have been a sight; a two year old girl running at full steam giggling and yelling “come on daddy” while her daddy was lagging back just wanting to rest.

This last about another 10 minutes, when all of a sudden my daughter ran out of steam too and ran into her mothers arms for a rest. I was happy to sit down only for a couple of minutes before we went into the party room for ice cream and cake. After that, all the kids were ready for more playing and running.

Kids have so much energy! But this time with my daughter made me think about our journey with Jesus. Some people start with a full sprint in this journey and after a while we wonder why they are not in church, or reading their bible, or in small group, or even serving. They just run out of stream in their journey and before you know it, they are burned out and frustrated.

Then there are others who pace themselves in their walk with Jesus. They grow consistently, the discover where their fit at the church is at and serve faithfully, they are learning more about the character of Christ, and they get more excited each day about Christ is doing in and through them. These people are effective for the Kingdome.

Because of this time with my daughter, I am reminded what it says in 1 Corinthians 9: 24 - “Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.” We are to run to obtain the prize. That will require us to pace ourselves. There will be times when we need to sprint, but this is not for prolonged periods of time.

This journey with Jesus is meant to last for all eternity. We pace ourselves now so we can be effective in building the Kingdom of God. We will one day hear Jesus say the words we all long to hear – “well done good and faithful servant.”