Day 2 • It’s Not A Sprint • Discovering God On The Journey

Growing up, I had a lot of great family members around in my life that I was so blessed to learn from. One of those was my grandad, Bob, or as he was known to us, Pake.

My grandad was a great man who was always up for a challenge and always lived his life focusing on what was in front of him. He was born in the Netherlands and made the decision as a young man to move to New Zealand with only a few dollars in his pocket.

He loved to walk. One day he noticed a couple of ladies across the road talking in Dutch so he went up and introduced himself. Long story short, he ended up marrying one of them: Nellie (or as we call her, Oma). They went on to have eight children. Yes, EIGHT CHILDREN! And at the same time, he owned and operated cafes, so life was very full. Somehow, Pake always seemed to find room for people and the future God was calling him into.

He did many things, but every day, even well into his 70s, he would make time to walk seven to ten kilometres a day. One day, one of his friends asked him, “How do you keep doing it, Bob? How do you keep going?” And his quick, wise reply was simply this, “It’s pretty simple really, I just put one foot in front of the other.” Still to this day, that is wisdom that I now live by.

Simple, yes, but profound. It’s similar to a life in Christ, a life where we understand it’s a journey that requires one foot being placed in front of another. The challenge for you and I, is to live and enjoy ‘the journey’ rather than focusing on trying to arrive at ‘the destination’.

Our Christian journey lasts a lifetime; it’s not a sprint! It’s one foot being placed in front of the other. The challenge for you and I is to live and enjoy ‘the journey’ while keeping our focus on the ‘destination’ ahead. 1 Corinthians 9:24-25 says “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last for ever.”
We don’t compete against others for God’s favour, but we ‘run’ to reach the finish line of a life lived for God.

Along the way you will continue to discover, just like I am, that God is God and God is good, even when I don’t see things take place the way I thought they would.

So what’s your next step? Maybe you have made a decision internally, but haven’t told someone about it externally yet. The Bible encourages us in Revelation 12:11 that “We overcome by the Blood of the Lamb (what Jesus has done for us by dying on the Cross and being raised from the dead) and by the word of our testimony (what God has done and is doing through our lives).”

I want to encourage you to let those in your world know of the decision you have made and recognise the power of your story has to impact others as well.