It was about ten years ago that a co-worker coerced me into cycling. I had always enjoyed mountain biking, but never tried riding much on the road. I was shocked by two things: how much fun it was, and how blazing fast some guys were. One guy in particular was impossible to keep up with. He had been an all-American swimmer in college and was super fast on the bike. He also worked really hard at it. He would post his rides on social media all the time, showing how much effort he put forth to build his fitness. Until he didn’t. One day he completely stopped posting his rides. I assumed he was still riding, just not posting about it, but every once in a while I’d check in on him and still find nothing, until a few months ago. He started riding again, but now he was a lot slower, more like my speed. In one of his recent posts he wrote the phrase “Fitness is for rent,” meaning, you can’t ‘buy’ fitness once and keep it forever, no, you have to pay rent daily to keep and build your fitness.

Last week I was cleaning out part of my closet and ran across my high school yearbook for the first time in probably twenty years. I had a few minutes so I glanced through the pages. So many names and faces I had completely forgotten! I read the notes that people had written in the front and back. I looked at the dress and styles and hairdos, admiring my mullet with no gray. When I finally put it down and turned back to the closet reorg project, there was a lingering sense of discouragement. That glance back in time brought back many missed opportunities to invest in others. I was reminded that my focus then was not on serving others and sharing Christ, in fact, I wanted others to serve me and build me up. I guess we all want that, but it saddened me to be reminded of a season of life that was overly self-focused. 

It doesn’t really help to be going fast if you’re pointed in the wrong direction. Sometimes in life you have to pause and make sure you are headed in the right direction.

I guess everyone has their thing – the thing that fills their thoughts when there’s nothing actively capturing their attention – the thing your mind wanders to when you let it run free. The thing you love to think about when you have a few minutes in between the things you know you have to do. For you it might be tubes or knitting or softball or cooking or baseball cards, or… books.

Just as in English, the word “saved” in the original language of the New Testament (Greek) has a range of meanings. It can mean being physically rescued from danger, like if a fireman pulls you from a burning car, or a stranger in Shoney’s gives you the Heimlich to dislodge a section of steak gristle. When we use it in church, we usually mean that someone has been rescued from the penalty of sin through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Of course with any “churchy” words we use (such as justification, sanctification, propitiation, sovereignty), we risk alienating someone who hasn’t yet learned what they mean. That’s why it’s good to take the time to define your terms, while also not discarding some of the words that help summarize profound theological truths.

Tonight we enter into another season of Fall ministry– D-Groups, AWANA, Student Ministry, all kick off TONIGHT. Of course, given we’ve had a summer break, there might be some rough going in the first week or two as we sort out rooms and tech needs and get everyone registered, but that’s okay – it’s all part of it. Sometimes you just have to push that raft out into the current and get moving in the right direction.

They say that in a triathlon it’s the transitions that make or break you. That’s where you have to make sure to keep moving and not lose time when changing from swimming clothes, to bike gear, and finally into running attire. In my brief two-event triathlon career, I believed in theory that the transitions needed to be fast, but in practice, after swimming hard in freezing open water and no wetsuit, I watched everyone run past my exhausted carcass while I fought just to walk up the sandy hill to the transition zone. I was more beached whale than blazing athlete. In theory the transitions are fast. In reality this transition zone was looking like a great place to stay a while, eat some snacks, and re-evaluate my life choices.

…One thing he modeled to me is growth. I want to be that way. I want to stay active and be growing and changing all the way up until the end. He was always a warrior, and yet I watched him grow and become more tender over time with his loved ones. It’s the Gospel that does that in our lives, that helps us grow, become more teachable, more approachable, able to admit wrong, better at extending and receiving forgiveness, and the wisdom to know how to become a tender warrior.

…I started back home, looking for it along the way. Sure enough, there it was lying by the side of the road at an intersection near our house. It looked pretty beat up. That’s one way to wear out a Bible, but there’s a much better, and slower, way. It’s the way Larry Peercy wears out his. I recently saw his Bible sitting on a table in the chapel. It had tattered pages, a faded and cracked cover and spine, and tarnished gold gilding on the sides. It was obvious he is a man who cherishes and studies God’s Word. In 1 Timothy 3:9, Paul tells Timothy that deacons “must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience.” There is simply no way to hold the mystery of the faith apart from serious Scripture study. May we love God’s Word the way Larry Peercy does and wear out our copies of it the right way.

Our theme for the month of July is “Grow.” One of the commitments I’ve made this summer is to try to grow in my prayer life. I already have an established time of personal prayer in the mornings, and I often pause and pray throughout the day for various reasons, but I wanted to add a more focused time of prayer for our church. I thought I’d start small, so I added a bullet point to my daily to-do list to pray for 15 minutes in the afternoon. During that time I planned to pray specifically for the people of Valley View, both the established members and guests.