Destination helps Motivation!
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My last "Thought for the Day" happened just before I set off for a long bike ride across Scotland. It was quite an adventure, and if you log onto the Christ Church Huntingdon blog, you’ll see a link to my photos. It was a really wonderful and memorable trip. But it wasn’t all easy.
On day 5 we had
a 50 mile bike ride and some of it was hard work up a very steep hill with the
wind against us. It was exhausting. It was so hard we had to get off our bikes
and push them up hill like heavy shopping trolleys. And then going down hill on
the other side, it was still hard work as you had to cycle hard to push against
the wind even when going downhill. Exhausting. I thought we weren’t going to
make it.
But there was one thing that kept me going. Now vegans and vegetarians please forgive me, but at the end of day we were due to have a meal at the family of Pastor Paul, a local church minister and friend, and he and his wife had prepared a meal of roast venison and all the trimmings. The prospect of that roast dinner fuelled me up and over the hills. It spurred me on. You could say that the destination helped motivation.
That’s a
common thing in life isn’t it? You can get through hard work when you know that
Christmas presents are on the other side. You can get through the revision when
you know that the school holidays are on the other side, the destination helps
the motivation.
It's the same
in the Christian life too. The Christian life is compared to a marathon not a
sprint. It’s not easy following Jesus, but it’s infinitely worth it. But the
best thing is that Jesus is at the finish line calling us on.
It picks up
this destination and motivation language in a book called Hebrews
chapter 12. “And let us run with perseverance the race marked out
for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of
faith”.
Wonderfully
Jesus ran his race to get us to heaven, dying on a cross to guarantee that he
will get all his followers home, and now he calls us to keep going to the end.
So if you are
following Jesus, keep going, it’s worth it. And if you haven’t yet joined the
race, what’s stopping you? Put your trust in the one who died for you, and
follow in his footsteps to the finish line.
Thanks for
listening.
Charlie Newcombe 20NOV25