“Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.”
– 1 Corinthians 9:26
When I read this verse I immediately thought of a track where people continually run around, sometimes for hours, but they never actually get anywhere. They are running and running, but they are not running to any destination. I know for sure, within my own life, I have felt like I was running around in circles, just making myself dizzy and disappointing myself because I was not getting anywhere. I also know that all of the moments in my life where I felt like this, I was also doing the second half of this verse, simply wasting my efforts beating the air. I was fighting a fight that was not worth fighting, I was holding on to things I should have given to God and I was depending on my own strength. This verse, though, begins with therefore.
This entire week we have been looking at how we, as Christians, are to run our race for Christ. We are to run, not to gain anything of this world, but instead run for the glory of our creator. We are to have self-control and discipline, training ourselves for the race. Here Paul is concreting what he previously said, and so he is not only telling us how to run the race, but very specifically how not to run this race. He is saying don’t run without a purpose, with no goal of any worth to work towards. We are not just going for a jog through a field of flowers to kill some time, we are running for our eternity with our savior. Where at any moments we could be disqualified, we need to not run aimlessly, but with God’s aim continually at the forefront of our minds.
Paul also says that we are not to fight like a boxer beating the air. When I read this the word that I continually thought of was pointless. Seriously, how pointless is it to beat at the air, all one accomplishes in this is that they lose all their strength. And yet, how convicting is this half of the verse and how often do we continually beat a dead horse, because we oddly think that might bring it life? I know that is a cliché, but as Elijah said before, clichés all started with tons of truth behind them. We fight so hard over things we have not control over, over things that don’t matter, non-salvific issues and things we want to be brought back to life. But what good does that do us? We are simply wasting the strength God gives us to for His glory, to feed our own pride. Paul is saying, therefor throw off these ways of man. God has told you how to run your race for His glory, now choose discipline, choose love, choose faith, choose passions and choose to run for Him.
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