From Sept. 1, 2018 through to Dec. 24, 2021 I published five posts weekly to my first blogsite, thebrokenrunner.com. On Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays these posts reflected the theme of the Lincoln Baptist Church Sunday message. On Thursdays the posts focused on some aspect of Discipleship (Assurance, Freedom, Priorities, The Bible, Prayer, Fellowship, Evangelism, God’s Will, and the Soon Return of Christ) on a rotating basis. On Fridays I responded to reader generated questions.
At the end of 2021 health issues forced me to step down from my service as Pastoral Assistant / Elder at Lincoln Baptist Church. A New Year was dawning, changes were happening, and with them this new blogsite was initiated.
I am still “the broken runner,” and you can read the story of that moniker below, or as it originally appeared on thebrokenrunner.com homepage. But this blogsite has a new name: “Pressing on…” and I envisioning it as having a much less structured format. Topics will be random, from my day to day walk with the Lord, and as the Holy Spirit may lead. I will probably post on every weekday, but if I need a day off I will take it. Mind you, I very much love writing these posts, but at age 70 I have had to accept there are days when indeed “the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” (Matt. 26:41) !
thebrokenrunner.com is still up and running. Though I do not anticipate adding to it, all 870 posts remain accessible. To date it has enjoyed 115 followers from 71 countries! I hope every one of them will join me here! We must all echo Paul in determination and commitment and say,
“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” – Phil. 3:13b,14 (NIV)
Press on…
The following is reprinted from thebrokenrunner.com blogsite…
Why “the broken runner”?
Three days after my sixteenth birthday my father died after suffering a third heart attack. In retrospect this should have been no surprise.
Dad’s upbringing was before we knew what we know today about the perils of high cholesterol, lack of exercise, and stress. Dad’s typical childhood breakfasts of bacon and toast fried in the drippings, a nervous condition resulting from a wartime double posting in isolation, and the years that followed at a desk job had all taken their toll.
That was 1967. I was just sixteen — a time when I needed a dad the most, but he was gone.
The following year Dr. Kenneth Cooper’s ground-breaking book Aerobics hit the stands. It promoted the seeming wild notion that exercise, not bed rest, was in order for heart patients. The heart was a muscle and like any muscle it would respond to being challenged. It could be made stronger. “Use it or lose it” became a catch phrase and the streets became peppered with crazy fools we called “joggers.”
Eventually we learned of the dangers of cholesterol… that diet just might affect heart and whole body health, and that heredity could play a role in one’s tendency to heart issues as well. The “crazy joggers” were gaining respect and we began to call them “runners.” It wasn’t long before I decided I too needed to eat better and get moving. I began to run.
“A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows” is the Lord, sang David – Ps. 68:5 (NIV). Indeed, He was this to me — especially as I ran. I ran in the early morning, before dawn, and ran till the sun awoke across the horizon. I listened… to nature… to scriptures… to songs of praise… and I listened to God, my Father. I cried, I rejoiced, and I prayed… till the fall of 2012.
A decades old back injury worsened by the slow deterioration of osteoporosis could no longer be compensated for by the surrounding muscles. In an instant my running career ended, and with it that glorious early morning tryst with my Father.
Scripture speaks much likening our spiritual journey in Christ to the course of a runner.
“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win.” – 1 Cor. 9:24-27
“…holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to glory because I did not run in vain nor toil in vain.” – Phil. 2:16
“…let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us…” – Heb. 12:1
It speaks much also of our need to be “broken” before God.
“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart…” – Ps. 51:17 (NKJV)
“…break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord ” – Hos. 10:12 (NIV)
“…unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds” – John 12:24 (NIV)
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’… when I am weak, then I am strong.” – 2 Cor. 12:9,10 (NIV)
I knew my Heavenly Father had allowed my running career to come to a halt that day. I knew His Will is sovereign. As much as I dearly loved running I knew I had to surrender it to Him. I had to be broken, broken enough to say with Job,
“The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.” – Job 1:21b (NKJV)
Now I have found other ways to keep that morning appointment and though this body can no longer run, in spirit I continue to “run the race laid out for me” and to run it in the only way that will ensure success, in brokenness and submission before Him. As Paul stated it,
“Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” – Phil. 3:13b,14 (NIV)
I am “the broken runner” and I invite you to run with me to that heavenly goal.
Press on…
Pressing on... 