My brother and I are thinking about running the half marathon at White Rock this winter. We're quasi-training for it now (which means saying we would run if it weren't so danged hot outside!) It got us talking yesterday about training for godliness, like Paul tells Titus to do. Tommy Nelson used to disciple a small group of college-aged men every year. They called them Young Guns. There was an application process for being in the group. Apparently, he put them through the ringer in terms of study, spiritual exercises and accountability. That always sounded like an awesome deal to me. And I've wanted a mentor ever since I heard about that. But here's the thing: I need a goal.
I'm not good at physical training for the sake of being in shape. I need a race or a game or a goal of some kind to train for. If the White Rock wasn't dangling out there in the near future, I wouldn't even be thinking about running this summer.
In a way, I wish my faith walk was like that. I know God is a person and my walk with him is a relationship - not a task to be checked off my list or a "personal best" to be attained. But I sometimes wish there were objective goals I could set in my relationship with God - something I could commit to and say, "I'm going to do this, by golly, even if it means getting up at 5am for training."
But I don't think those kinds of goals exist for the very reason that they do exist in other endeavors. If I were to have a goal like that, God would become for me a target - a challenge to be met. And then, once met, what? I guess I don't set those kinds of goals for any other relationships in my life (maybe I should?)
Once again, the Lord proves to be an uncontainable sovereign. Still, a mentor would be nice. I could stand to be "put through the ringer."
