With the nice spring weather that finally arrived, I have been able to get back outside and start running again. That running provided an unexpected benefit: lessons on how to persevere as a Christian.

The first similarity that hit me was that without practice you lose strength. After a good five months without any serious jogging, I just assumed that I could get up and run a mile like nothing. Wrong. I failed epically! In life it’s much the same. Without keeping God’s way in practice, you quickly lose knowledge, skill and caring. Before you know it, you can be distant and estranged from God’s way all together.

Hand in hand with practice comes proper form. As most good runners or anyone who’s been in track should know, running for any extended time without good form can not only drastically slow your time, but seriously mangle your body—sore feet, twisted ankles, raw throats and tense shoulders to name a few. In the real world, this point is even more serious. If we casually ignore rules like “don’t lie” or “observe the Sabbath,” our spiritual health can quickly go down the tubes and could cause nasty “complications” like broken relationships and a broken heart.

There is another extremely important similarity—keeping your eye on the prize. In just about any race, if you can’t visualize the finish line, you can falter, slow and even quit all together. Sometimes in my jogs I get so absorbed in my tiring muscles or labored breathing, I can slow to a walk without even looking up to see how close to the end I am (often only a couple hundred yards away). In life this is critical. Without keeping focus on our prize of a relationship with God and eternal life in His kingdom, it can be so easy and seemingly simple just to stop caring and slack off in our pursuit of godliness. That focus on the goal is key! Much like in a race, we can’t let a stupid momentary lapse in focus set us back in attaining that longed-for reward.

There is so much we can learn from the simple science of running to help us endure the race of life. As it is written, “let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrew 12:1).