Better Than The Alternative?

A good friend and I are hatching a plan to run the Boston marathon in 2020. I'll confess that it is his idea, and a bit more sane of an idea than the last running adventure we did together. That one was my idea, to run four marathons in four days, which we did back in December, 2016.  In both cases it wasn’t stated but I believe that the underlying assumption was that we aren’t getting any younger, and so it is high time to take a chance and do something different.    

Take a chance. On one hand, what is the chance, or the risk? Between us we have over 85 years of experience running, over 250,000 lifetime miles, and over 120 marathons. We should be able to do Boston in our sleep, although if asleep we'd miss all the excitement!  The chance is the qualifying standards.

The Boston marathon has had qualifying standards for maybe 40 years. When I was training for my first marathon, in 1982, my number one goal was to reach the Boston standard for my age group.  It took me two more years to make that standard, and another few years to find my groove as a marathoner. I didn't have aspirations to run Boston but if I ever did, qualifying would not be a problem. 

Skip ahead to 2018 and with the 2020 Boston marathon just over the horizon it turns out that qualifying is becoming part of the equation in getting there. My friend ran a marathon last weekend and as he told me about it he lamented the seemingly increasing loss of speed with every passing year. Solace was found in the fact that while his recent marathon was one of the slowest he's ever run it did make the Boston standard. Barely. Even better, it falls within the window for qualifying in 2020, and at that time he will be in an age-group with a slower standard, meaning that right now he is in not by seconds, but by nearly 15 minutes.

And my problem is that I'm coming off an injury, just about the worst one I've ever had, and where it is much too soon to tell if my body will handle the marathon distance, let alone be able to produce a Boston qualifying time.

But hey, I'm still running. That's better than the alternative, right?

That would seem to be the conventional wisdom. That virtually anything that goes on and still allows a person to draw breath is better than death. Conventional, but not biblical, wisdom.

Paul talks about these alternatives a bit in 2 Corinthians 5. Verse 8 says:

"Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord."

Just two choices for the Christian. Life in this body, or life in the very presence of the Lord. And when we look at what the Bible has to say about the glories of heaven, they are nothing less than spectacular. Isaiah in the throne room of God. Ezekiel and the glory of the Lord. And John, in Revelation, with his own vision of God's throne. 

The very last part of the Belgic Confession says it this way:

"The Son of God will profess their names before God his Father and the holy and elect angels; all tears will be wiped from their eyes; and their cause—at present condemned as heretical and evil by many judges and civil officers—will be acknowledged as the cause of the Son of God.

And as a gracious reward the Lord will make them possess a glory such as the human heart could never imagine.

So we look forward to that great day with longing in order to enjoy fully
the promises of God in Christ Jesus, our Lord."

Life here better than the very presence of God? In even the most glorious of human circumstances there is no comparison. None at all.

Not that I am seeking an end to my human life as I hurry off to the direct presence of my faithful Savior and Lord. He has certainly given me plenty to do at the present! But understanding the future glory promised to all who have faith in Jesus gives me a clearer view of what the alternative to human life really is. It lets me live today with changes that I may not be crazy about,(and of which a slower running speed is relatively mundane!) knowing that one day, on God's timing, he will bringing me to what Paul, so simply and beautifully calls, home. Amen.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.