Recently I’ve been reading The Perfect Mile by Neal Bascomb. This book is a page-turner about the quests by three men to be the first man to run the mile in less than four minutes. In the early 1950s, Brit Roger Bannister, Australian John Landy, and American Wes Santee were all in the hunt to beat the “four-minute barrier.”

If you know your running history, you know that Roger Bannister ran a 3:59.4 on May 6, 1954 to become the first man to run a sub-four minute mile. Six weeks later, Landy would beat that time by nearly a second and a half. Santee missed the “magic mile” by a half-second, logging a personal best of 4:00.5. But this passage about one of Wes Santee’s races stood out to me (Easton is Santee’s coach):

“Right before the gun sounded, Santee drew in a breath and held it. The gun fired, and he burst forward. Bogerud started slightly quicker, but by the end of the first turn Santee took the lead. Bogerud tried to catch up, but there was nothing he could do—and he know it. By the start of the second lap Santee was only a half-second off pace. Easton was calling out his times, and despite the cacophony from the stands, Santee heard him. No matter how noisy it was, he always heard his coach. His ear was tuned in to Easton’s voice.” The Perfect Mile, 166.

The point of this section is this: for a world-class runner to log a record time, he needs constant updates from his coach about his pace. If he goes out to fast, he won’t have the stamina to finish strong, but if he runs too slow, he won’t have the speed to make up the time late in the race. His ear must be tuned in to his coach’s voice.

I think the Christian life is kind of like this. Scripture occasionally uses the metaphor of a race to describe the Christian life, but we need help to complete this race successfully. Like Wes Santee, our ears need to be tuned in to a certain voice. But fortunately for us, God isn’t just yelling at us from the sidelines. He is leading us daily through His Word, by His Spirit.

It’s for this reason I want to encourage you to faithfulness in the habit of meeting with God every day this summer. For most of us, it is harder to meet with God in summer than other times. None of us drift into regular Bible reading, and without the consistent schedule of the school year, it can be hard to get up and into the Word. So here are a few ideas to help you stay consistent:

• Start with a plan. Decide ahead of time what you are going to read for each day. I recommend a daily reading plan like For the Love of God or our church’s daily reading plan (aka “The Mull”).
• Choose a regular time and place. Set your alarm clock and get up. Get your coffee/tea/orange juice/Mountain Dew and head to your favorite chair/couch/beanbag/porch swing. Having your quiet time in bed is not recommended. It will be a quiet time indeed.
• Get someone else involved. Tell your parents or siblings or close friends what your plan is and tell them you will give them updates on how it is going. (Don’t make the accountability mistake of asking them to ask you about it. Keep the responsibility on yourself to do it and to tell them how it is going!) Talk to them about what you are learning and how God is meeting you.
• Track your progress. Get a calendar and mark off each day that you meet with God. Avoid legalism here: don’t think that God is impressed with your consistency. God is only impressed with the obedience of His Son. But do this so you can make a realistic assessment of your faithfulness. If you find that you regularly meet with God 4 days a week, make your goal 6. I would be surprised if, after three months, you don’t find that you are growing in your consistency.

Wes Santee won that race, by the way.

Categories: five15 blog