Stop looking for the finish line… Just run!

23 May Stop looking for the finish line… Just run!

Let me start by offering a truth: I’m not a runner. In fact, my knees creak and crack so much that I have embarrassed my dear wife when I sit down in church because people around us look for the origin of the loud crunching sound. Ashley, however does not miss the chance to join a 5k and she effortlessly dominates her age group while pushing a set of twins. I appreciate the idea of running though. The training, the sacrifice, the early mornings… I remember when I was growing up I would visit a close friend’s house and his father would return from an early morning run with sweat frozen in his hair and clothes all in preparation for an upcoming marathon. Didn’t make sense then at the age of 7, but at 41 I’m starting to get it. From an outsiders view it seemed all about the finish line.

I say all of that to relate what recently happened here in Honduras. After 8 years we had a finish line experience. It all started when I got call from another missionary from another organization. She talked about a need in a large children’s home here in San Pedro Sula. There are 20 to 30 young men in this home that no one is discipling. People had tried to reach out to them from time to time, but with little lasting success. She knew of our youth group in the Bordos community and thought that bringing our staff in might help make a connection. I agreed with her that we would pray about it getting involved. Shortly thereafter, within seconds of praying, I felt like God dropped a ton of bricks on me. The feeling was clear, “It’s time to put the boys in the game”. Cristian “Cappy” Lopez has been discipling some of the most amazing young men I’ve ever known over the past 4 years. It felt right. It was time. Let’s get them in the game. After talking with Cris he agreed that the boys were ready. THEY would lead this Bible study and now focus their lives on these young men. The next day Cappy pitched the idea to four of the young me and they agreed.

Now, fast forward with me to this past Saturday. I had the opportunity to drive Angel, Victor, Irvin, and Poyte to the large children’s home for their meeting with the young men. It was silent in the car. I tried to break the silence with a killer joke, “Que pais cabe en una tortilla? Chile.” No laughter. Then I really knew that the nerves were hitting hard because that joke is gold. Before we got out of the car at the orphanage I got to share with them that the pressure is not on them, and that the Holy Spirit would both guide their words and move on the hearts of the hearer. He has them covered on all sides. They knew this already, but we all need the reminder as our human nature will always scrap and fight to make everything about our personal performance.

As we walked through the home the boys began to follow us to the meeting area. They were drawn to our guys. There were hugs, high fives, and connections happening right away. I could already see evidence that the Holy Spirit had gone ahead of us. Poyte introduced the theme for the day – LOVE. Immediately my brain started thinking about how one communicates love to young men who have felt abandoned and abused their entire lives. Then I sat back and watched God work. Poyte talked about how showing love might be caring or supporting someone as a friend or a teammate on the soccer field. They immediately perked up and got that. They nodded their heads and chimed in. Then Victor talked about how greater love has no one than this – to lay his life down for a friend and introduced the love of Jesus. After that, Angel walked up and with great strength told his testimony about the moment Christ entered his life and he felt love for the first time. He spoke about how nothing can separate us from the love of God. As Irvin walked up to speak every young man in the crowd smiled. The joy of God flows out of him. He gave an amazing lesson on how Jesus coming to earth was God showing His love for us. Then Poyte came back up and finished it off and prayed. I probably could have summarized all of that better but I chose not to. It’s representative of something large for Sparrow Missions. It represents the multiplication of disciples. Young men who joined us and were discipled are now making disciples of others.

I flash back to when we first walked in to the Bordos in 2009 with the dream of seeing disciples made. On Saturday I took a moment to soak it in. It felt like a finish line experience. (This must be why all those runners do it) It was overwhelming. I called Bo Cracraft and we celebrated together. High fives were given all around. God had moved faithfully to a point of seeing multiplication happen! Then I began to think of all the other areas where God is working in amazing ways. The Children’s Home community, the women’s discipleship, the Sparrow Academy, Ministerio Vida…. and I realized that this is not the finish line at all. These are simply a few of the amazing things that God does during the race. It’s super easy to get caught up in looking for the finish lines of life. It might look like gauging the success of church by the number of the people in the congregation or a ministry with it’s number of salvations per year. In our personal lives we must always be aware that God hasn’t set quotas or minimums for us to meet to cross the finish line successfully. What He wants for us is found in Hebrews 12:1-2:

1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

We are to: #1. Run with perseverance the race marked out for us. #2. Fix our eyes on Jesus. Each of us have a distinct race to run. But we must consistently ask ourselves if we are running the race that He marked out for us or one that we marked out. It will require sacrifice and total dependence on God. And most importantly, are our eyes fixed clearly on Jesus. He is the pioneer and perfecter of faith. He led the way. Will we follow in His footsteps?