Driven – Why do you race?

This is probably one of, if not the best commercial Nike has ever done.

Why?  Goosebump factor… JUST DO IT®.

Maybe that’s because I’m a jock.  Maybe because I have seen real men fight this fight.  Maybe because…

It makes me reevaluate the last 10 months and my father-in-law’s fight with cancer.  He’s my cycling buddy and a fiercely competitive one at that.  Mark is a hero of the faith, and we’ll always be able to tell the tale of him depending on the Lord to fight this nasty indiscriminate disease.  He took his news of having cancer head on and whooped the stuff with the help of a faithful God and body of Christ surrounding him as cheerleaders.  It was like he was riding the Tour de France with his fans on either side of the road screaming at the top of their lungs for him, urging him on hoping that he would end the day with the yellow jersey.  Except this yellow jersey was his life itself.  There were time trails, climbs, sprints, and even more climbs.  But along the way was the most beautiful scenery of life; family, friends, fellow cancer patients, the very Hand of God.  He fought and rode hard in this race of life.  He crashed, was chased by rabid dogs, but in the end, as Mark always seems to do, he won…

One day our kids and grandkids will say, “Dad, tell me that story about Pop one more time before we go to bed,” and I don’t know about you, but that’s solid “God” kind of testimony stuff.

There was another guy I read about recently in the Old Testament.  His name was Benaiah.  More specifically look at the story about this mighty warrior in 2 Samuel 23:20-23.  Best I can tell, Ben was the only guy in scripture that didn’t turn tail and run when faced with the impending doom of the king of the beasts, a lion.  500 hundred perfect powerful pounds of our Creator God’s finest work faced Benaiah one day and he chased that rascal into a pit, on a snowy day at that, and had his victory.  I bet Nike would have signed ole Ben back in those days had the swoosh been around.  He seemed to be the epitome of JUST DO IT® and LIVESTRONG®.

What is it about facing mortality that makes us more driven? 
More centered? 
More in tune?
More Christ-like?

Over the coming weeks, I will effort to journal what the Almighty is showing me, Jared Nathan Blong, about chasing lions.

Oh, and by the way, Lance is certainly silencing the critics with his perfomance so far in Le Tour.  Check it out:

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