“3:03:08” or, “The Persistence of a Persistent God”

Three kilometers into the run, I wondered what I was doing.  Stopping wasn’t an option; walking wasn’t either.  With seven more kilometers to go, determination rose in my heart and in my mind – You have to keep going.  You will finish.  You have to.   It was a stronger feeling than I had during the 1.5 kilometer swim and 39 kilometer bike just before.  Why so suddenly this persistence, this urge to press on without holding back?  I’m not sure if it was the realization that I was already two-thirds done with the triathlon, but the hardest third was still ahead of me; or was it a strong memory about my running past?  I thought about October 8, 2007, the day I had started to run.  That day it took me 25 minutes to go a mile and a half.  And here I was hoping to run nearly six miles in an hour… at the end of an olympic tri.  How far I had come!  And so I kept running.  I had to, there was a drive bubbling and boiling inside of me that would not be still.

With the tap tap of my shoes on the pavement, I realized that my persistence was wanting in other areas.  I thought of Luke 18, and the parable Jesus told his disciples “to show them that they should always pray and not give up” – the story of a widow who is eventually granted justice because of her persistence.  Just as I was persisting in running to the finish line, I should be persistent in prayer, a discipline I am trying to learn.

And then God reminded me of HIS persistence.  He is persistent in drawing people to Himself.  He is persistent in calling us to repentance and in challenging us to reach out with His love.  Peter wrote that God is patient, “not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”  God is patient, and persistent in His patience.  God is persistent to bring the Thai people to know Him:  He still sends people to Thailand to reach a nation that, after over a century of missionary activity, remains less than two percent Christian;  He still beckons people to pray that the Thai will turn from Buddha to God; He still loves the Thai as His children and longs for them to follow Him.

I finished the tri in 3:03:08… slow but for my first olympic distance I was satisfied.  My 3rd kilometer persistence waned by kilometers eight and nine, but I made it to the finish line a few minutes shy of my goal.  My persistence only had to last for those three hours, and especially the final 45 minutes — but the persistence of God persists for all time.  His desire and love for His children has not changed since the beginning of time, and will not change for eternity.  What a great God.

2 Peter 3:9