Follow me
I helped the first sergeant PT the remedials this morning. We jogged down to a quarter mile track and started running laps. 8 laps would be timed, he said, with a catch-your-breath lap between each. I was the pace setter for the "cheetahs", the group of 11 Marines who had to sprint around the track in 1:30 (if there were stragglers, the lap wouldn't count for anyone).
We made the first few on time, but before long I was crossing the line with only one or two on my heels. The rest were doing their best, and wretching spiritedly on the side of the track after each lap, but it was clear that the group could no longer make the 1:30. In consequence, we would keep running until the first sergeant got tired. To make sure we understood that failure was not acceptable, he hollered for me to increase the pace on the jog laps.
We were somewhere around our 9th or 10th lap (not including the jog laps), when the thought that only four had counted began to irk some of the Marines. Not to mention that we had yet to even start on the crunches, pushups, and chin-ups. I decided to address the murmering behind me: "You need to give it all you got on this next lap, oo-rah? We know we're not going to make time anymore, but when you think about it, it's an easy day. All you gotta do is run. Run until you're dry-heaving and the first sergeant will smile and we'll call it a day."
I often feel that life is like that. I become overwhelmed by the requirements and responsibilities of work, relationships, and most of all, the raw dispair of being so sinful. I not only fall short, I see no way to improve enough to make standard. I just keep going around and around, the same old broken pathetic sinner, making God more angry with every lap.
In one sense, what God requires of us is impossible--to go and sin no more--but like this morning's PT, he knows we are weak and there is another standard hidden behind the rules. Sometimes in the gospels, Jesus makes the way of salvation very difficult. He said that whoever is angry is a murderer, and whoever lusts is an adulterer. He told the rich young ruler that following the Ten Commandments was not enough and that he must also go sell everything he owned; but Jesus also simplified the divine precepts: "Follow me." Being a Christian is hard when viewed as a list of commandments, but we are really only required to try. We must give up everything--leave all and follow him--to die to ourselves--but the mortification of the flesh, taken step by step, is nothing more than deciding to follow Jesus. It is loving God, it is desiring to be cleansed, it is believing that he is willing to forgive.
It's a lousy analogy, I know, but tonight at least it is a comfort to me. I don't have to be perfect, I only have to want to be. God is not actually angry--he's just yelling so I press on, and it's for my own good.
-Kevin
(with apologies in advance to the theologically minded)
We made the first few on time, but before long I was crossing the line with only one or two on my heels. The rest were doing their best, and wretching spiritedly on the side of the track after each lap, but it was clear that the group could no longer make the 1:30. In consequence, we would keep running until the first sergeant got tired. To make sure we understood that failure was not acceptable, he hollered for me to increase the pace on the jog laps.
We were somewhere around our 9th or 10th lap (not including the jog laps), when the thought that only four had counted began to irk some of the Marines. Not to mention that we had yet to even start on the crunches, pushups, and chin-ups. I decided to address the murmering behind me: "You need to give it all you got on this next lap, oo-rah? We know we're not going to make time anymore, but when you think about it, it's an easy day. All you gotta do is run. Run until you're dry-heaving and the first sergeant will smile and we'll call it a day."
I often feel that life is like that. I become overwhelmed by the requirements and responsibilities of work, relationships, and most of all, the raw dispair of being so sinful. I not only fall short, I see no way to improve enough to make standard. I just keep going around and around, the same old broken pathetic sinner, making God more angry with every lap.
In one sense, what God requires of us is impossible--to go and sin no more--but like this morning's PT, he knows we are weak and there is another standard hidden behind the rules. Sometimes in the gospels, Jesus makes the way of salvation very difficult. He said that whoever is angry is a murderer, and whoever lusts is an adulterer. He told the rich young ruler that following the Ten Commandments was not enough and that he must also go sell everything he owned; but Jesus also simplified the divine precepts: "Follow me." Being a Christian is hard when viewed as a list of commandments, but we are really only required to try. We must give up everything--leave all and follow him--to die to ourselves--but the mortification of the flesh, taken step by step, is nothing more than deciding to follow Jesus. It is loving God, it is desiring to be cleansed, it is believing that he is willing to forgive.
It's a lousy analogy, I know, but tonight at least it is a comfort to me. I don't have to be perfect, I only have to want to be. God is not actually angry--he's just yelling so I press on, and it's for my own good.
-Kevin
(with apologies in advance to the theologically minded)
posted by Motokeb at 7:13 PM
2 Comments:
Sounds like the sort of thing an LT and First Sergeant would do. Always increasing the morale of the men.
Good analogy though.
Love the analogy and glad you weren't yelling at me to pick up the pace during my 5K today. I'm running a marathon in San Diego in June and the finish line is on the parade deck of MCRD...yeah, baby!!
Post a Comment
<< Home