All those who run marathons, climb mountains, and/or compete in rigorous sports events like the Olympics, or even Ironman, have something in common: a desire to do everything necessary for the sheer pleasure of giving it their best shot. Of course, winning is the ultimate goal, but failing that, there is undeniable satisfaction just in participating. Each of these enthusiasts could go on and on about the pain, the aching muscles, the fatigue, the self-denials involved, but they rarely see training that way. They are more likely to emphasize the adrenaline rush, the endorphins kicking in, the incremental improvements, the fierce drive to better their time, their endurance, etc.
Then there are the rest of us who can only stand by, shaking our heads, bewildered. But they assure us, it’s for the joy set before them they endure the stretched-to-the-limit bodies, scorning the torturous after-burn of near-collapse, and set their faces like flint on the Finish line.
They’re like the ‘original twelve’ who were given something like a Holy Spirit-infused metabolism (because nothing less would have sufficed). They were amped up over the events in the upper room on the Day of Pentecost, the subsequent, miraculous interventions not of their doing, and the ecstatic joy of seeing crowds of people submitting to the Lordship of Jesus. Completing this chaotic scenario precisely as Jesus had described it to them, were: the opposition to the message of the Gospel, the hatred, the arrests, the beatings, the rejections, the humiliations, the imprisonments, the martyrdoms. Jesus had previously announced all these things to them, indeed, would end up submitting to all these things himself.
As we continue throughout this week of Thanksgiving, it is our great privilege, as 21st Century disciples, to remember with gratitude all Jesus taught and all the disciples successfully submitted to so the Kingdom of God could begin its task of filling the earth with the knowledge of the Glory of God as the waters cover the sea. Habakkuk 2:14. Torture, schmorture! This is God’s Plan ‘A,’ a cycle birthed in victory that ends in victory! He’s already won! Yes! PD
ps Happy Thanksgiving!
