“On the first day of the week, we gathered with the local believers to share in the Lord’s Supper.”

Yesterday, the third place Men’s winner in the New York City Marathon was a “Citizen Runner”.  What that means is that the runner is not a full-time runner and is not sponsored, so that means he has another job other than running like the others who are in the “elite status”.  Why is this at all interesting?  Well, the training at this level of distance running requires up to and in many cases over 100 miles of running a week.  Yes, that is a week, which even at an average training pace of 6:00 per mile (no one trains that fast all the time) a runner is looking at 600 minutes/10 hours plus of running a week.  Add into the time to get ready and to cool down, clean up, etc and we can add 8-10 hours to the 10 hours, so now we are 18-20 hours a week of activity.  Think if you are working 40-60 hours a week and then adding on another 20 hours for working out.  That is why the elites are usually sponsored to run so they don’t have to work a job. And, this is why so many of us who might work 40-60 hours a week find it so hard to squeeze in just a few hours to work out.

What does the Citizen Runner teach us?  When I see someone who is able to find priorities and discipline in how they allocate their time and energy, I am reminded that this is what God asks us to do.  He tells us that we are to put Him first and then allocate the rest of our life from there.  That is the time with family, work, recreation, fitness, etc.  And, what God promises is that if we truly do put Him first in our lives the rest will fall into place. Like the verse in Acts tells to start our week. And yes, we are running our life race for Him.

Reference: Acts 20:7 (New Living Translation)