Its difficult and takes an enormous amount of strength to climb the mountain of faith, to everyday stand by your virtue and your convictions, and to take responsibility for your actions and face and work through your inner demons. "Fun" more often then not is a mask for denial and its important to understand the intent and purpose behind why you take the actions you do and what fills your time and your mind on a daily basis.
Everybody wants to live life on the edge, to amp up their bodies, cars--to take them to the extreme. People use the reasoning that they want to feel alive, they want to experience life, and to better understand their place within it. When will it ever be enough? How fast does your life need to go in order to feel you have purpose? This recklessness is an escape from the truth that our purpose has nothing to do with our own pace, but everything to do with Gods!
You can never out run God, but you can run yourself out of others lives!
Athletes set out to conquer and dominate the impossible--to push themselves beyond that of another. There are those players that are just naturally gifted, the ones everyone loves to hate, who can just show up to any game and dominate the field, but have you noticed that those players never last very long? Their window of impact and consistency is short lived and their ego's most often get the best of them and they become their own worst enemy. Life is a marathon and not a sprint. If you go running out of the gate full speed, you will pass hundreds of people but it will be those same people that pass you in the end as they finish their race with strength, stability, and pride. People don't like the work it takes to be consistent, to be disciplined, and to have to push themselves beyond what they think they are capable of, but it is in the practice, the day-to-day strength building, conditioning, and mental exercises that build the level of dedication, commitment, and skill that is needed to reach greatness and to ultimately conquer the prize.
Practice isn't always fun, nobody wants to feel weak or feel that they always have something more to live up to, our pride so easily gets in the way. Conditioning at times seems to break us more then build us as our muscles cramp and spasm and as our breath gets stuck in our throats and we gasp for air. The adventure in life, the pushing yourself to the limit, comes in these moments of wanting to give up but choosing instead to rise above. These are the moments that show what you are made of, who you are, and what you are capable of. These, however, are not the televised moments, not the moments you read about in magazines, or the pictures you see on stadiums. Hard work is not glamorous. A person's true character, ability, and talent is not proven on the field or the court, but in the day to day conditioning that brings him to that point.
It's not enough to be physically strong--one has to be emotionally and mentally strong as well--you have to dedicate ALL of yourself to the ultimate goal. You devote all of yourself in training, to your passion, and when any part of you suffers, whether it be emotionally, mentally, or physically, they all suffer and cause you to slip from your goal.
Life isn't boring--its grueling--and its the practicing of our faith that prepares us for the Spiritual Battles we will all face. I know when the day comes that God calls me to fight for Him--I do not want to realize that I wasted my days of conditioning and am unable to be strong and courageous for Him. People often think Christian's live their lives on the sidelines or on the benches of life but is THIS life your ultimate purpose? I will not waste my days in this life, I will live them to there fullest; however, my aim, and my goal is not in this life. I condition, I train, I focus my body, soul, and mind on being ready for when Christ asks me to stand for Him.
Romans 5:3-5
Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
