ΒιΆΉ΄«Γ½

On Sept. 19 in 1879 a young Thomas Ray set the world’s pole vault record at 11 feet, 2 1/2 inches. Reading on later that week I discovered that on the very same date in 1992 a citizen of Ukraine, Sergey Bubka, set a new world record in the same event at 20 feet, 2 1/2 inches. Of course in the intervening 113 years between the two Sept. 19 sporting events, there had been many gradual incremental increases in the record’s height.

Among true connoisseurs of sports there is a heartfelt axiom whether it is spoken or not that goes β€œrecords are set to be broken!” This attitude underlies every area of human endeavor. It is the driving force that has propelled the human race in every aspect of life from medical science to space exploration to manufacturing to education to agriculture. ... Well, you can go on and on. Regardless of how well things perform, someone is always observing and studying on a β€œnew and improved” version.

And they should. This impulsive force is the impetus for human improvement.

My opinion is that the principle should also apply to our spiritual lives as well ... improvement, that is. As a child, I remember my home congregation from time to time would have a special service, usually following the mandatory fall revival week.

Everyone would be invited to participate by giving a personal testimony of the Lord’s activities in their lives. Some of the comments that were made could be quite moving, interesting and spiritually insightful, but the one I remember most was an aged man who was always the first to rush up to the front of the church and share about how, β€œthe Lord saved me from tobacco.”

He repeated the same version year after year with the only alteration of his testimony being how many years had elapsed since he had put one of those β€œsticks of Satan” in his mouth.

At some point I thought, has not God touched your life in any other way in all these years? Though I never voiced those words to anyone else, I was really asking, β€œHas there not been any other deepening or improvement in your spirituality? Has your Christianity plateaued?”

Employing the sports analogy, the record-setting basketball phenomenon Kareem Abdul-Jabbar made the astute observation in The Guardian when Lebron James approached breaking Abdul-Jabbar’s all-time scoring record: β€œActually, when I see these talented veteran players’ remarkable athleticism while shooting, blocking and rebounding, I’m cheering them on with β€˜Go, man, go!’ I want them to break my record because doing so is one more benchmark of human progress.”

Should it not be as well with us in our spiritual outlook every day that instead of looking back over our shoulders at the past we search for new ways to grow in service to others to β€œlet our light shine”?

Paul the apostle always worded such thoughts better than I am able. To the Church at Philippi he wrote, β€œForgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on ... Let those of you who are mature be thus minded what God will reveal to you.”