You Are A Theologian--Isaiah 40:6-8

Day 16

My nephew is running the Boston Marathon today and I have nothing but plaudits and huzzahs for him because to run a race like that takes singular dedication and a willingness to endure an exhausting training regimen and whatever sore ligaments and tired muscles that come with pounding out 26 miles at a time.

I certainly don’t get it.

I’m pretty amazed when I’m able to get 4 miles in on the beach and that’s walking at a leisurely pace, stopping every once in a while to pick up interesting seashells or talk to a friend.

But since I’m a theologian (Jen Wilkin and J.T. English says as much in You Are A Theologian:  An Invitation To Know And Love God Well), I feel like I can make a spiritual connection to my nephew and his marathon.

He’s got a story–with a beginning, checkpoints, and a finish line– and as a Christian, when I stare into the abyss of my mortality, I have a story too.

I’m not just on this earth for nothing.

Wilkin and English portray our society as in deep trouble without an overarching story:

“We live in an age that pervasively ascribes to the depressing and anxiety-inducing belief that there is no overarching story that makes sense of the world.  There is no grand story in which to participate.  Therefore, our individual stories either terminate on our own happiness or on nothing at all.  But the unavoidable (and diabolically) conclusion of an unstoried existence is that our lives are purposeless, aimless, and ultimately meaningless.”

Do people run marathons and take on other arduous tasks so they WILL have meaning in their lives?

I think that’s a whole lot better than the nihilism you will find on any garden-variety series or movie on Netflix these days.

Albert Einstein wrote in The World as I See It:

“The man who regards his own life and that of his fellow creatures as meaningless is not merely unhappy but hardly fit for life.”

Running a marathon involves way too much work and preparation to not have meaning.

So does playing golf, gardening, working at a career, or anything else that we do that takes our undivided attention.

Why do we do the things we do?

Dallas Willard writes in Renovation Of The Heart:

“For usual human beings in the usual circumstances, their bodies run their lives.  Contrary to the words of Jesus in Matthew 6:25, life is, for them, not more than food, nor the body more than clothing…their time and energy are almost wholly, if not entirely, devoted to how their bodies look, smell, and feel, and to how they can be secured and used to meet ego needs such as admiration, sexual gratification, and power over others.”

What’s the point then?

Wilkin and English reference Isaiah 40 in their discussion on our bodily deaths:

Isaiah 40:6-8 A voice says, “Call out.” Then he answered, “What shall I call out?”All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. 7  The grass withers, the flower fades, When the breath of the Lord blows upon it; The people are indeed grass! 8  The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.

This has been my struggle since Karen was diagnosed with the GIST a couple of weeks ago.  I’ve not done well with the acceptance of our mortality as a couple.

Isaiah’s words are beautiful and poetic but the message is blunt–we are grass and we will be cut down and mowed over just like grass.

Chopped down suddenly or withered in time, we will pass on.

What, then, is the point of taking on anything if we are to be cut down and stacked like bales of hay?

My future hope is that “Christ will return, raise the dead, (the stacked bales of hay), execute perfect justice, and establish His Kingdom without end.”

Death will not be my final word.

My death is a beginning.

More marathons to run for weirdos like my nephew.  More gardens to tend for Karen.  Another whole round of golf to play in Heaven for me.  🙂

Like Rosaria Butterfield describes in Five Lies of Our Anti-Christian Age, my soul will last forever:

“We need to know that the Bible, like our souls, will last forever…This world is passing away, but the Word of God will be with us in Heaven and in the new Jerusalem.”

It’s almost 8:00 am.  My nephew is getting ready to start the Boston Marathon.

I’m running my marathon with him—mine for all eternity.  

Lord, we know that life is fleeting but Your Word endures.  We are like the grass that withers and fades and we are but a breath in all of eternity.

Lord, we thank You for the gift of Your Word which is the source of comfort, guidance, and strength in our lives.

Lord, help us not boast in our own strength or accomplishments but humbly submit ourselves to Your will and Your purpose for our lives.

Amen.