Three Words

One. Someone once sang that "One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do."

Dissatisfaction. "I can't get no satisfaction." We know those lyrics.

What do these two things have in common. Not the Rolling Stones song and the Three Dog Night tune, but the words "One" and "Dissatisfaction?"

Well, let me throw one more word into the mix: running.

I love to run. Up until three years ago, I hated running. I hated it with a passion. But now I can't wait to get up in the morning, long before the sun and the neighbors get up (which is difficult as I write, since we have about 16 hours of light every day during early June.)

Why do I like it so? It's the competition of pushing further and faster. It's the compulsion of conditioning. It's the feeling of complete exhaustion mixed with euphoria as I near the end of a 16 mile run.

But back to the three words. One. Dissatisfaction. Running. What do these words have in common? Philippians 3:12-16.

12Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

15All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16Only let us live up to what we have already attained.

More to come later...