I recently watched a video of Sydney McLaughlin talking about her world-record performance in the 400 meter hurdles at the 2022 World Championships. The video is awesome because it is a split screen video. On the bottom of the screen, you can see the race while on the top screen McLaughlin is watching the race and talking through what she was thinking and feeling. McLaughlin crushed the race; there was no one close to her as she crossed the finish line.
I was struck by what McLaughlin said as she finished the race. In first place by a wide margin, she begins to slow down as she gets to the line. It looks like she is coasting and slowing down because she is so far ahead, but as McLaughlin says she is starting to break down. As she watched herself cross the line, McLaughlin said:
A meaningful reflection of Jesus happens as we do things despite the pain.
Jane Fonda coined the phrase “No pain, no gain” in a series of aerobic workout videos in the early 1980’s. She used the catchphrase as a challenge and encouragement for the audience to keep going. The idea was that what you want is on the other side of this moment of pain.
The Christian life is not devoid of pain. In fact, we should expect pain because:
1. Life involves people
People are great, but people can also cause great pain. People leave. People let us down. People say nasty things to us and about us. But people are the mission of Jesus and as a follower of Jesus, His mission is our mission.
2. Life involves denying self
The crux of life in Jesus is making Him the Lord of our lives. We make Him lord by doing what He wants instead of what we want when those two things differ. Mark Batterson calls these moments, “Decisions against yourself.” The net result of denying what we want in the moment for what God directs are the eternal rewards that are better than the results in the moment.
Meaningful things are on the other side of painful moments. The marathon of life can be a painful race, but it can also be the most rewarding.
Keep Reflecting Jesus!