Road Rules
Pt. 1 – Indian Running
I. Introduction
Although you can’t tell it by looking at me now, I have a long history of running in my past. As a 7th grader in middle school I had visions of becoming a great football player. I went out for football and played until my 8th grade year. However, my football career came to a screeching halt when we did a fumble drill and they put me up against Corwin Walker. I weighed about 80lbs in 8th grad and Corwin weighed 180 lbs. We he hit me my helmet turned completely backwards and I suddenly lost all motivation to play football. So I immediately switched to Cross Country. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. In Cross Country we would run 3.1 (or 5k) races. In my Freshmen year I went to State with my team and I finished around 130th. But each year I improved until my Senior year, after elevating my training from 3 miles a day as a freshmen to 10 miles a day, I went to State and finished 11th (Honorable Mention All-State) and ran my personal best of 17:34. I learned a lot of valuable life and spiritual lessons from Cross Country. As you can see from my earlier picture all of my teammates were American Indians. These guys introduced me to a new training method that I want to talk to you about today. They called it Indian Running. I will explain this concept better in just a moment. But first let’s read a portion of text that I want to bring to your attention today.
II. Text
Hebrews 12:1-3; 12-13
1-3Do you see what this means—all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he's there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!
So don't sit around on your hands! No more dragging your feet! Clear the path for long-distance runners so no one will trip and fall, so no one will step in a hole and sprain an ankle. Help each other out. And run for it!
III. Indian Running
Indian Running . . . I believe that this method of running was the sole difference in my improvement from my Freshmen year to my Senior Year. Indian Running could not be done alone. Let me show you what Indian Running looks like!
There is something about having the other runners in front of you that pushed you to greater speeds. If you failed to sprint to the front the system broke down and the others would be punished with failure too. That thought kept you going. You followed behind someone and then their momentum would send you to the front. That sounds like Hebrews 12:1 doesn’t it.
a. Don’t make fun of the Rabbit! (We can’t forget those who have gone before.)
My nickname on my team was “The Rabbit” because I would go out and set the pace. In Indian Running the guy at the front was the rabbit and the guy at the back would sprint to catch him.
Paul states that there is a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. In other words, there are those who have gone before us who are now watching us run and they are cheering us on. I want you to know that I recognize that for the most part we are very young congregation and that we don’t do church like many of our forefathers did church. I am alright with that and believe that is a good thing. And yet, the danger is that if we are not careful we will begin to despise our heritage and the history that was created before us! Do I like the style of all the runners in front of me? Do I appreciate all of their thoughts, ideas, and peculiarities? NO! But does that mean that I should discount their ability to run or the distance they brought us? NO! I should applaud the efforts and accomplishments of the preceding runners and understand that I am able to run the way I run now because of the sacrifices and efforts of those who have gone before. I hear too many folks rail against the previous generation of runners, but they never stop to consider that they are able to run faster and into new territory today due to the pace and exploration of the previous generation! Christianity isn’t just being connected relationally, it is also about being connected generationally! The new generation can’t forget the older generation!
Scoff at the older set if you want to. Ridicule their strictness and dogmatic stances if you will. Discount their beliefs and their standards as antiquated and outdated to your own demise. But I am here to tell you to bite your tongue and mind your mouth. Those folks for all of their legalism and resistance to change ushered us into a greater pace and a greater anointing than we would be experiencing right now without them! We are capitalizing on the momentum gained by those running before us! Although we may not do it the way they did we wouldn’t be running at all if it wasn’t for the foundation they created for us. Their sweat and blood catapult us forward at a great speed! I honor the forerunners today! I refuse to look down at churches that still do it the old way. It may not be the most effective way anymore, but they enabled us to do what we are doing! If we don’t know our history/heritage we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes. Don’t discount truth/teachings/standards just because they seem old! If it wasn’t for those “rabbits” standing for what is right we wouldn’t be able to meet like this today! Old beliefs aren’t always bad beliefs!
b. Lone Rangers become Lone Victims
There is a great cloud of witnesses - group. Let us run . . . plural. We are connected! We are to run this race together. We had a couple of teammates that refused to Indian Run with us. They wanted to run by themselves. I don’t know if they were afraid of the harder workout of if they were just lazy. All I know is they never ran as fast as we did! We would be on our way back and they would be walking, still headed to the turnaround point. If they would have stayed with us or run with us they would have been accomplishing more!
Although there are times and stretches you will have to run alone the truth is that teams who train together run faster than individuals that train alone. The runner that can run isolated and continue a faster pace than when running with someone is the exception and not the rule. It is easier to walk, give up, slow down, get discouraged, give in to temptation to veer off trail or to stop, and sluff off when you are by yourself.
Most of the people I know who have quit the race or slow down in their maturity progress have done so as a result of isolating themselves. That is why when some of you start missing a lot I get very nervous. It isn’t because we are worried about keeping up attendance reports! It is the fact that Christianity was never intended to be walked out in isolation! Sure one can put a thousand to flight! But what can we do together – 10,000?
Jesus approached the men that He would call to be His disciples and said I want to be with you. If anyone could have walked this walk in isolation Jesus could have. He had all power at His beck and call. He had all the tools necessary and yet He wanted to be with others! In fact, I would submit that He needed to be with others on this journey!
If you are alone in this race you will lose! There is nothing heroic about saying I am in this by myself. I did this by myself. I won by myself. It is suicidal to do this by yourself!
Some of you are alone by choice. You can’t get along with anyone. You won’t let your guard down. You won’t allow anyone to get in the race with you! You will lose!
Others are alone, but not by choice. You are just longing for a running companion. I encourage you to find one. Quit waiting. Develop a relationship. Pursue it. Intentionally open your life to someone.
Others are alone because God has allowed you to enter a stretch or season of isolation. Just remember you aren’t called to run that way forever. Run in isolation until the season ends and then get back with the team! If you are isolated you are easy to pick off. You are easy pickings for the enemy. We are learning in 9 year old football that there is strength in numbers. 1 of them little rug rats can’t tackle me, but 15 of those little jokers can put the smack down on you! Get back in the group!
Also, I can’t stress this truth enough . . . You cannot forget how your run impacts others! You aren’t running a solitary race! Others are in the race with you and others are watching from the stand, but they are all depending on you to run the race well. How you run may very well determine whether someone else finishes or wins! How you run may cause someone else to crash in burn if you are not diligent!
Now I will caution you that you have to run with the right people! Let me explain!
c. The power of the Push.
Indian Running pushes you! Unless you have done it I am not sure how to explain it. There is just something about being in that group and knowing the others are cheering you on to sprint to the front. When you take off from the back, you pass the runners and they are all saying, “come on . . . you can do it.” Somehow this causes you to speed up even when you don’t feel like it.
You have to run with the right people . . . you need to run with folks that will push you!
Paul states in Hebrew 3:13 13But exhort one another daily, while it is called Today; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
Who are you encouraging? Barnabas was so busy pushing others to victory that his name was changed from Joseph to Barnabas which means “Son of Encouragement!” Who have you “Barnabized” lately? I don’t hear much encouraging any more. I hear judgment. I hear ridicule. I hear sadness. I see heads shaking and finger wagging. I just don’t hear us cheering one another on like a team should. What happened to the “You can make its?” What happened to the “Hold ons?” When was the last time you heard or said, “Let’s go, don’t quit, don’t give up”?
Paul says we have a duty to spur one another on. Hebrews 10:24 says, “And let us consider one another to provoke (or spur) unto love and to good works!” And yet, we will watch someone do well and never say a word. We will watch our teammates struggle and falter and never say a word! We are playing into our enemies hands!
Legend has it that God decided to reduce the weapons in the devil’s armory to one. Satan could choose which ‘fiery dart’ he would keep. He chose the power of discouragement. ‘If only I can persuade Christians to be thoroughly discouraged’, he reasoned, ‘they will make no further effort and I shall be enthroned in their lives.’
William Barclay, has written, ‘One of the highest of human duties is the duty of encouragement.”.
Another man said, “Correction does much, but encouragement does more.” Maybe your job isn’t to offer correction, but rather a word of encouragement!
Jamie had ‘learning difficulties’ at school. One day he had a great big smile on his face. He’d never been happier. And when he bounced into the car, he said, ‘Mother! Mother! You are not going to believe it, but I got the best part of all in the school play!’ And his mother said, ‘You did, honey! That’s great! That’s wonderful! What part is it anyway?’ And Jamie said, ‘Mom, I’ve been chosen to clap and cheer for all the others!’
Maybe you haven’t been chosen to handle the microphone or strum the guitar. But perhaps the best part you can play is to push the runners around you to run faster! Many of you are sitting next to folks right now that feel like giving up on their marriage, on their ministry, on their family, on their life, on their dream and on their walk with God and a simple cheer could cause them to run on!
d. Point out the potholes!
We can’t run this race just for us. We are called to clear the way. Point out the potholes and debris. Not wait to see others fall in and point it out. Too many of us let others fall in and then we gloat over their fall. We have a mandate from God that as we run our race we don’t become so centered and focused on our own run, our own victory, our own blessings that we fail to think about the runners coming behind us. That is why Paul instructed the older men to train the younger men and the older women to mentor the younger women. We have too many folks who are trying to run the race blind. No one ahead of them is pointing out the pitfalls and hazards.
Listen, if you have been running this race for any length of time, please reach back and give road condition reports to those behind you. If you have battled alcohol don’t let shame keep you from pointing out the pain of that path to the ones dabbling with drinking now. If you have endured a divorce don’t hermit up and refuse to share with the young lady or young man who is dating someone that will break their heart. If you have run through tragedy find someone who is entering that dark place and teach them how to navigate their way through the despair! If your family is marked by a particular tendency be the one to clear the path by breaking that cycle now. My father broke the cycle of fatherless/abandoned children! He made my path easier than his. You should be making it easier to run the race not harder!
Our mindset has to change. I was talking to someone about planting a church and I was talking about some of the financial struggles involved. He had planted a church decades before and his comment was “I had to struggle when I planted too and no one helped me.” I am alright with that statement if he didn’t have any ability to keep others from going through what he experienced. However, this gentlemen now had the ability to step in and make sure others don’t have to struggle, but since he struggled they should have to struggle too! What happened to clearing the path so that those following can run faster, go further, and win more quickly! Help someone!
Altar – find someone and encourage them or clear the path for them. Some of you may need to find the person you made the race harder for and ask forgiveness. Some may need to find someone and point out a pothole that you see them head for. I want you to do that. However, we can all get involved in the power of the push!
