From Start to Finish

I ran my very first 5k a few weeks ago with Compass Church.  We put the race together to raise money for The A21 Campaign, an organization devoted to stamping out human trafficking and sex slavery while helping to rescue and rehabilitate it's victims.  The only problem with my race was that I didn't train...at all.  Not even a little bit.

I had a decent excuse - my toe hurt (and before you make any snide remarks, smash your toe with a hammer and see how well you get around).  Okay, maybe it's not decent but it's still a working excuse; and I still ran the race with a time of 25:54 which I'm pretty pleased with.  Regardless of my time, running three miles cold with no training or preparation at all is not a good idea.  I had muscles that had long lain dormant awake and screaming at me after the race.  My lungs felt like stretched out, deflated balloons.  My body was very unhappy with me because I went into the race with nothing more than a faith in my ability to finish and the willpower to not come in last.

Faith is something we start a lot of things with.  We begin new diets and workout routines with the faith that this will be the one that changes our bodies and lives.  We start new businesses with no guarantees of success, just a belief in our ideas and ability to pull them off.  We send our kids to teachers at school that we casually know at best believing they will be both educated and well cared for.  We invest trust in new relationships on faith that our trust is well placed and will not be violated.  We go on our first date with someone believing that they might be the one.

The thing that is constant about our faith based endeavors is that ultimately they will require some real work on our part.  I can run one 5k without training, but discovering that I can do it only makes me realize that I have to start taking the practical steps of training seriously.  My willpower and faith in myself simply just isn't enough to make me a successful runner.  I have to put that faith aside and start doing the real, tangible work of becoming a runner.  I can open the doors of my new business very easily, but I have to begin putting together and working a strong strategy.  Extending trust to someone in a relationship has to be followed with verifying the strength and veracity of that relationship.  Faith is a great start, but like anything that we begin with excitement it will always require us to come back down to earth and do the real work of success.  You may ask someone to marry you because you know they are the one, but until you start to work out the real details of where dirty laundry goes, who does the dishes and whether we leave the bathroom door open or closed, you are in for a rough ride.

But there is one area of life where faith is at both the start and the finish...

This Good News tells us how God makes us right in his sight. This is accomplished from start to finish by faith. As the Scriptures say, “It is through faith that a righteous person has life.”  -Romans 1:17 

When it comes to a real and transformative relationship with God, faith is everything.  We don't just start it by saying, "I don't know how you can do this in my life, God, but I'm going to take a step toward you because I'm going to believe you will."  We maintain it by saying, "I don't know how you can keep doing this in my life, God, but you have in the past and I'm going to take a step toward you because I'm going to believe you won't stop."

It all begins by putting our faith in Jesus, believing that he has a better way for us to live - that he has a plan for our lives.  But we don't just cross that starting line of faith and begin doing all the work of building our new lives in Christ on our own.  In Romans 1:17, the Bible tell us that it's through faith that a righteous person has life.  What is a righteous person?  Someone who does all the right things.  Someone who is good.  If anyone could earn God's love and favor, it's them.  But even a righteous person can't find true life by doing good - it only comes through faith.  And not just faith at the beginning of the race that God can do something, faith that finishes the race.  It's a faith that continually runs back to God everyday in innocent trust knowing that no matter how far we have come we can still never make ourselves right with God on our own.  It's a faith that frees us from the expectation that would even have to.

I've known God for a lot of years, but the same depth of life and relationship that he has blessed me with is available for you who may only be coming to him for the first time today, because it's the same faith that makes us right with him.  I may have been around the block a few times with Jesus but I could still never earn his love and favor.  It comes to me the same way it comes to you, by simply going to him every day and saying, "I know I can put my faith in you."  Should we work hard to honor God?  Of course.  Should we do our best to truly love other people?  Certainly.  Are either of those possible without faith?  Nope.  Real life starts and finishes with faith in Jesus.  No gimmicks, no sales pitches, no hidden fees, contracts or small print.  Just faith.