1 Corinthians 9 has a
slightly presidential speech quality to it, one that by the end has you almost
standing up applauding or wiping a tear from the corner of your eye. Paul is
getting passionate and that translates to us when we read it.
The
beginning of the scripture is aimed at correcting those speaking bad of him.
Reminding them of what he justly has rights to and the fact that he hasn't
taken what perhaps he deserves. It's the end of this passage that really gets
me, where Paul begins to talk about self discipline and getting ourselves in
good shape to run the race set out before us.
This
year has been a year of amazing races, medals, joy and tears. But the Olympics
is once every 4 years, what does a runner do when they get home from running a
race? They train, they train and they train. They put the hard work in, they
train themselves to make the right decisions while running a race. The more
that comes from good habits and less that comes from choices mid race the
better the sprint is. In this new academic year are there parts of our lives we
want to train on, perhaps a new discipline. Perhaps the hard work now will mean
a smoother run when the bumps of life come.
(lay member of staff)