Winning like a Pentathlete!

 

Winning Like a Pentathlete

 

   The Modern pentathlon is actually a variation of late 19th-century military training.  It involves 5 events: fencing, pistol shooting, swimming, cross country running, and horse riding.  The idea was to test an athlete in a number of areas to see if they were able to go beyond their physical skills and resources and tap into their moral qualities.  As believers in Jesus Christ, it is important to remember that we must grow in multiple areas.  We need to grow in our personal relationship with the Lord, which is the most important, but we also need to grow in other areas of life.  That is the message of this paper.

   The Bible compares our Christian life to an athlete.  Read the message in 1^st Corinthians 9:24-27 from God’s Word translation. 

 

   “Don't you realize that everyone who runs in a race runs to win, but only one runner gets the prize? Run like them, so that you can win. Everyone who enters an athletic contest goes into strict training. They do it to win a temporary crown, but we do it to win one that will be permanent. So, I run-but not without a clear goal ahead of me. So, I box-but not as if I were just shadowboxing. Rather, I toughen my body with punches and make it my slave so that I will not be disqualified after I have spread the Good News to others.” 

 

   Another great verse on the subject is in Philippians 3 and verses 12-14.

 

“It's not that I've already reached the goal or have already completed the course. But I run to win that which Jesus Christ has already won for me. Brothers and sisters, I can't consider myself a winner yet. This is what I do: I don't look back, I lengthen my stride, and I run straight toward the goal to win the prize that God's heavenly call offers in Christ Jesus.” 

   There are five areas of life that I think that we should emphasize in our Christian growth.  They are growing in your Personal walk with the Lord, growing in your Marriage and Family Life, growing in your Occupational life, growing in your Church life, and growing in your Social life.  When you think about these five areas of spiritual growth, it might be helpful to think of your hand.  The thumb and four fingers can represent these five areas. The thumb represents your Personal Spiritual life, the first finger represents your Family life, the second, your Occupation life, the third is your Church life and ministry and the fourth can represent your Social life.  This may also be a good order of priorities in your life.

 

 

   The thumb represents your personal walk with God.  I have written a number of blogs and even a book that encourages you to start a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.  Please see my blogs entitled “Faith and the Great Blondin”, “What Brought me to Christ”, the “Ultimate Baseball Game”, and “The Matrix & The Christian Life”.  You can tell that I consider a relationship with Jesus to be extremely important.  If you were to make a fist, you would see how the thumb holds the fist together.  It is the thumb that enables us to do so many functions in life!  Your hand would be considerably less effective without the thumb.  Your life would be eternally ineffective without your life with the Lord!

 

  We need to continue to grow in our relationship with the Lord, but we also cannot neglect other areas of life.  Too many times we will hear of Christian ministers who did a wonderful job of preaching and teaching in public, but somehow neglected their marriage and family life in private!  We need to remember the first finger: we need to grow with our family. 

   I am familiar with the challenges of keeping your public ministry and your job and your family life in balance.  I do NOT think that it is God’s Will for you to neglect one over the other.  You may need to reduce your workload in order to spend more time with your spouse and children, but it will be worth it in the long run.  You cannot get back the missed hours that were lost in neglecting your family.

 

   Listen to the words from 1^st Timothy 3 and verses 2-5 from the Good News Bible translation.

 

“A church leader must be without fault; he must have only one wife, be sober, self-controlled, and orderly; he must welcome strangers in his home; he must be able to teach; he must not be a drunkard or a violent man, but gentle and peaceful; he must not love money; he must be able to manage his own family well and make his children obey him with all respect. For if a man does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of the church of God?

 

   Remember that we not only need to make our family a priority, but we also need to bring a spiritual dimension to our family life.  That may mean that we pray as a family, that we follow the Christian principle of holiness in our media choices, that we care for one another more deeply than ourselves, and that we practice forgiveness and love, and patience in our lives at home.  I guess the idea is to apply the principles of the Bible not only with strangers but with people of our own household.  I remember an old poem that said.

 

To live above with saints we love, that will be glory,

To live below, with the saints we know, that’s quite a different story!

Poem by William van der Zande.

 

   We also need to spiritually grow in our occupational life.  Someone once asked me if there were any Bible verses that spoke directly to our life at work.  I told them definitely, all you need to do is to insert “worker, or employee” whenever the Bible mentions “slave, or servant” and boss, whenever the Bible mentioned “master!”  I thought that was very funny, but it is actually true.  Look at the words of Ephesians 6, verses 5-9.  Here is the verse from the King James Translation.

 

Servants, be obedient to them that are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as unto Christ; Not with eyeservice, as men-pleasers; but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart; With goodwill doing service, as to the Lord, and not to men: Knowing that whatsoever good thing any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord, whether he be bond or free. And, ye masters, do the same things unto them, forbearing threatening: knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is there respect of persons with him.

 

Here are the same verses with the “changes.”

 

   Employees obey your bosses according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, in singleness of your heart, as to Christ; not with eye-service, as men-pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God from the heart, with goodwill doing service as to the Lord and not to men (knowing that whatever good thing he does, he shall receive the same from the Lord, whether he is an employee or a manager). And managers, do the same things to them, forbearing threatening, knowing that your Ultimate Boss is in Heaven. There is no respect of persons with Him. 

 

   There are a lot of biblical principles that can easily be applied at work.  I will write a blog just on that idea in the future.  The idea that I would like to leave you for now, is to try and apply the Bible in every area of your life… and you will experience more of the blessings of God!

 

 

   The last two areas to “win” in is your Church life and your Social life.  These two areas have been the most affected by the COVID 19 crisis!  Our ability and privilege to attend a large public gathering have been very restricted.  I think that during these times, it is important to remember that whenever 2, or more Christians can get together in a conversation – it can be a wonderful thing and is worth the effort to make it happen.  It doesn’t have to be 20 or 30, or 200 to 300, or 2 to 3 thousand in order to be blessed by God!  Those numbers are great but do not belittle the smaller groups. There are times when they can be incredibly valuable… like now!  Read my blog called “The House of God” to read more about this idea.

   I want to close this blog with one final note.  We have recently seen the political transfer of power with the last election and the many changes that it has brought about.  I think that we as Christians tend to think that in order to change the world – we have to make changes on a large scale, but we need to remember that in order to change the world – we just need to start with the person in front of us!  We need to start with the person that has not yet entrusted their life to the Lord Jesus and try to influence them for Christ. We need to be successful in our social world by trying to make a spiritual impact on the people in our lives.  It reminds me of the illustration of a young boy who was walking along the beach and saw thousands of starfish who had been washed ashore and were dying in the sun.  He was reaching down and throwing them back into the water.  An old man came along and asked him how he expected to make much of a difference with all the thousands that were on the beach?  He reached down and picked one up and tossed it into the water and said, “at least I saved that one!” 

 

 

    Please reach out and make a difference.  Just start with the person in front of you.  Yes, it is nice to have a political leader who supports your Christian ideals, yes, it would be nice to have another Billy Graham to reach the masses, but even if every politician were supporting biblical principles – they would still not be able to reach every person.  Even the greatest Christian evangelist might not ever interest your co-worker, or neighbor, or relative.  You can change the world one soul at a time.

   As you grow in your Christian life, remember your hand, and try and win the race in every area of life.  Please do not neglect one area over the other.  You have to be successful in every skill to win as a pentathlete and you must win in every area to be a successful Christian.  God bless you as you grow.

 

Written by Lee Malden 2021

For more information: email lmalden@hotmail.com

 

These are my thoughts today, what do you think?  Please leave me a response or email me and I would be happy to hear your thoughts.