Persevere, You Have a Great Trainer

Romans 5: 3-5: "Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us."

I went on my first training ride of 2022 yesterday. It was great to be back on a bike again. My legs felt strong. The wind blowing by me felt great, and I felt like I could bike forever. Those feelings; however, lasted about a quarter of a mile. After that, my legs became wobbly, I couldn’t get in a full breath, and I no longer felt the cooling breeze. It was painful and I was reminded of the countless conversations that I’ve had with people who think I’m crazy for participating in this bike ride every year. It was a short 5-mile bike ride, and I struggled with the thought that our first day of the tour is about 104 miles long.

A year or two back, some of my kids joined me on the first training ride of the season. While biking, my daughter, Addie, who was witnessing my struggles asked me, “Dad, why do you spit so much?”. When we got home, I told her that starting up a good habit is hard to do, and your body will push back against your desire for change. My lungs push back on me every year when I start training.

Unfortunately, this is the case for all positive change, whether you’re talking about training for the Tour, starting a good habit, or ending a sinful habit. Training for the Tour de Togo helps build our spiritual armor by reminding us what it is like to grow spiritually.

When we recognize a habitual sin in our life the Holy Spirit urges us to address that sin. We may be convicted to overcome that sin (either by pressures from the Holy Spirit, those close to us, or both). When we are convicted, we become convinced that we will change, and for a short while that conviction pushes us towards change. Shortly after that initial burst of energy is gone, our sinful nature pushes back. We may relapse, we may feel like we don’t have the strength to see the change through, or we may get ugly and spit. But, if we push through suffering, that suffering produces a belief in us that we can persevere. When we persevere through a struggle, we develop character. As we develop character, we build our hope.

This will be my 9th tour. I now know that my first training ride will be horrible, but I know that when I hop on my bike again later this week, that 10 miles will feel like 5, and the next time, I will go a little farther and a still farther the next time.

While I will never be Lance Armstrong, I know that by continuing to hop back on my bike and push a little harder than I did the last time, that I will be able to go longer distances faster. Likewise, when we are overcoming habitual sins, the first week is the most difficult, but as we endure, we persevere, and we develop character, and by developing character, it produces hope. Hope that we will one day look back and wonder why we ever struggled with that sin. The good news is that when we persevere through spiritual battles, God’s love is poured into our hearts throughout the Holy Spirit, so we don’t have to go at the battle alone.

In Him,

-Matt Robinson

Published 5/22/2022

PS: This year, these articles have been focused on different ways that the Tour strengthens our spiritual armor. If you’d like to get caught up, you can see all of these articles at the Chaplin’s Corner.

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