If you are coming on this Race just because the Lord told you to, don’t.
Let me rephrase that…
If you are coming, kicking and screaming, not wanting to come here at all, resistant to everything the Race stands for or desires to walk you through…turn around now.
If you want nothing to do with discipleship or peer discipleship at that…run away.
Because being on the Race won’t change your mind.
If you’re just going to come on this Race, but never DO this Race…your time will be better spent somewhere else.
Obedience is not just showing up.
If a girl came into my volleyball practice…because her dad wanted her to come, because he knew there was something to be learned there…yet she refused to partake in any drill and hated her teammates because they weren’t what she thought they should be…I would tell her to get out of my gym.
Obedience doesn’t stop after we’ve gone to the place the Lord has asked us to go.
And it isn’t even close to what the Lord had in mind when He spoke of submission.
So, don’t fool yourself.
Don’t pat yourself on the back for going to a place that the Lord told you to go, yet resist every aspect of the place He took you to.
Remove your hand from your back.
And look at Him, and ask Him why.
Ask Him why He’s asking you to go on this Race.
And don’t walk away from His presence until He gives you an answer.
Because if you don’t get that answer…
You’ll be miserable.
If you don’t hear from Him that what’s out here is for your good…no matter how uncomfortable, no matter how painful…
If you don’t hear that…you might find yourself wanting to run.
Or wanting to close up.
Or you may even spend over half your Race merely surviving…because you think you’ve done the Lord a favor by just showing up.
You need to hear from Him.
You might need to hear Him say that it’s necessary.
You might need to hear Him say that the people that you’re going to meet are going to rub you the wrong way…and that that is precisely the method He will use to heal parts of you that you fight so hard to keep buried.
Sometimes you need to hear more than just the call to “Go.”
We are allowed to ask for more than the “Go.”
Because when it gets rough…when it feels unbearable…we need to remember the call…we need to remember the assurance He gave us then…
Because He rarely asks us to go just to see if we will go.
That’s too easy…and only Step one…
He told Abraham to go…but assured him of the promise.
He told Moses to go…and assured him of His presence.
He told Joshua to go…and assured him that He would lead him.
He told Gideon to go…and assured him of the victory.
He told you to GO…and…what?
What did the Lord say to you after the ‘Go’?
Sometimes we get so busy…we want to know so badly what we’re supposed to ‘do with our lives’ that we forget to linger beyond the ‘Go.’
And yet, that’s where the promise is.
It can even be as simple as a call to trust Him…and that in and of itself is worth waiting for.
So…if you’re a future Racer…sit with Him…ask Him.
Be sure of the call…even if you don’t understand it.
If you’re a current Racer out here on the field…and at times questioning what in the world you’re doing here…ask Him.
It’s not too late.
And then linger…linger till He tells you.
Find out how the following sentence will be completed…
“He told _____ to go…and assured him/her of ______.”
***Not just for Racers…so all readers, whatever stage of life you are in…sit with Him…ask Him…and stay till He answers you.
