Mike Neifert | Senior Pastor at Pratt Friends Church, Missions Mobilizer Chairman
Ten plus years ago, I was invited to join the coaching staff at Skyline, a rural district just outside Pratt’s city limits. My first assignment was assisting the head coach of the middle school and high school cross country teams.
The first Run for Missions 10K had gotten me started running. My desire to improve after this 2010 event kept me learning and taught me what I needed to pass on to the students in this new venture.
In the eleven seasons I’ve coached – I’m head coach now – I’ve learned to be patiently persistent in teaching the basics. My goal is to get certain things so drilled into a middle school runner’s head that she can’t run incorrectly when she’s vying for a top ten finish at Regionals in high school years later. I want her to have the best chance of achieving her goal.
I understand, however, that I have little control over the outcome on any given day. I can tell a high school boy that it’s as important to recover properly in practice as it is to run fast in a race, but I can’t make him run fast or slow. I can only point the way and keep reminding him of what I know to be true. When he gets it, I’ve learned to be quick to encourage the good results so he’ll want to continue doing things right.
This past fall, Skyline’s boys qualified for the State cross country meet after a really good season. The question as they toed the line on the first Saturday in November was simple: could they place in the top three at State and earn a banner? On a miserably rainy day, the seven of them answered, yes, running their best race and finishing as State Runners-up. Their hard work and determination had paid off. Their banner is hanging in the gym!
One last lesson: no matter what happens in a given season, the next season rolls around and the work starts over. You’ve got to train to get a new prize, to set a new personal record time, to help your team succeed in new meets. You can’t rest on your laurels.
All the things I’ve learned from teaching others to run have application for every believer who leads another in following Jesus. You and I can patiently persist in helping our brother get the basics right. We can pass along the lessons we’ve learned and pray our sister will, with the Spirit’s help, take responsibility for her own growth. We also must keep pressing forward in our pursuit of Jesus, learning from him and from those around us. With his help, we’ll one day be commended for our faith. We’ll hear our Father say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Enter into my happiness!” That’s better by far than a banner on a wall!
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.”
(1 Corinthians 9:24)
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