Ironically, writing this article on Running with Endurance has felt nearly impossible to finish; it was scheduled to be posted weeks ago. Life throws all kinds of hurdles at us. For me, those hurdles have been moving our manufacturing plant, a family reunion, being sick and then having a holiday thrown in the mix. It’s been easy to justify not writing due to these hurdles. Throughout this process, I’ve been asking myself one question in particular: Do I lack endurance in the race God has set before me or did I just get busy?
Hebrews 12:1-3 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. 2 We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. 3 Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up.”
Simon Sinek’s concentric circles can be a helpful framework for unpacking the idea of Running with Endurance: Why, How and What.
Why. Why do we run with endurance? To phrase this differently, why do we work hard or why do we run our organizations? The answer is heaven. As seen in verse 2, we should place our joy in heaven. It’s out of this future joy that we find meaning, motivation, and endurance to work. This is easier said than done when our world tells us to put our joy in everything but heaven.
How. How do we run with endurance? Verse 2 says, “We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus.” Nothing more, nothing less. Jesus is enough. Inevitably, when we start tripping over hurdles or lacking endurance it should be a warning sign that our focus might have drifted away from Jesus. See Joy vs. Burnout for more on this.
What. What are the daily actions to gain endurance? Verse 1 says we strip off every weight, especially the sin that trips us up. Discussed more in our Overview article. Remember that things like family obligations (Matthew 8:22), hosting (Luke 10:40-42), teaching (Mark 1) or business responsibilities can be God-honoring in one scenario and can be weights or distractions in another scenario. Having the discipline to identify the difference and then eliminate these weights requires wisdom from God and clarity on what our race truly is.
As we strive to run our race with endurance, there will be times we get off course. Generally when this happens in my life, it’s because I have stripped off “weights” that are not actually weights. It starts when I falsely define my business as the only race for a time and strip off all the other “weights,” allowing me to “faithfully run the company.” The justification is easy: in order to free up my bandwidth to put out a fire in my business, I shrink my devotional time, cut my scheduled time to write these articles (a built-in way to connect scripture with business), and I might skip our Wednesday night Bible study to work late. I’ve intentionally put these things in my life to keep me focused on Jesus; but when they are diminished or removed, my focus on Christ generally shrinks in tandem. Business is not our race; the life of faith is (vs 1).
To have the type of endurance Paul is talking about, we must have these three core elements: #1 Our hearts must long for the joy awaiting us in heaven, #2 Christ must be in focus through all our business pursuits and actions, and #3 All of the weights and sin must be continually stripped off. These elements are the key too endurance, the antidote to growing weary and giving up.