Pressing Toward the Goal

Note: The following article was written several years ago by my younger brother, Carter, while he was serving as Youth Minister for the Pleasant Valley Church of Christ in Little Rock, Arkansas. Read it and see if it might apply to you. - Bud Lambert

My first day as a junior high track coach will be hard to forget. After working with high school and college athletes, I was a bit unsure about my ability to communicate to junior high students. I was put at ease immediately by their excitement and eagerness.

After giving them team warm-up instructions, I watched them do their laps and sprints. Immediately the contrast between the way the girls ran and the form of the boys was evident. I suppose boys become interested in athletics at an early age and watch and mimic older athletes. They watch guys who grit their teeth, clinch their fists, and grunt and, as unnatural as it feels, think that is what it takes to run fast. Unfortunately, most of their effort was wasted motion and in reality, slowed them.

The girls were different. They had no preconceived idea of how they were supposed to look or what they were supposed to do, they just did what came naturally. They ran along smoothly and effortlessly and actually seemed to enjoy themselves. The poor guys, for all their gritting, grunting, and clinching, weren't getting anywhere fast. They looked the part though.

I wonder if congregations aren't sometimes like adolescent boys trying out for track. We look around and see what everyone else is doing and try to mimic all their programs to become "a great church" too. Unfortunately, those efforts are often forced, unnatural, and wasted motion that in reality slows us from really being what we can be. Maybe if we focused on Christ, His sacrifice for us and His example, serving would become natural and we wouldn't be gritting, grunting, and clinching while getting nowhere. Like the girls who ran naturally, we might enjoy ourselves too.