My New Year's resolution is to take it easy. I believe that if I don't try as hard I will perform better in all areas of life. I know this sounds foolish, but rather than label it so harshly let's just call it counter-intuitive. Support for this notion will come from the life of such a prominent, fruitful Christian as Hudson Taylor, and history, but first let's look at a physiological example.

An Example From Marathon Training

When I trained for marathons a few years ago I would run five times a week and eventually log around 50 miles a week at the peak of the training cycle. That was way too much work, I decided, so I cut it back to running three times a week, but putting in tougher training sessions. I figured that the muscles are built by stressing them, then resting them, and inserting at least a day of rest in between each exercise day would help rather than hurt me. The result was a personal best in last year's marathon.

This year, in conjunction with my resolution, I will cut back my level of effort even more. I will still run three times a week, but this time my weekend long runs will be run at a slow pace. Yes, I will eventually run faster because I run slower. Here is how it works.

If you run marathons the long run is not what increases your speed. Speedwork does. Speedwork, for me, is running intervals (running 1/2 mile repeats at a faster pace than you could maintain over a 3-6 mile course). And as I like to say, to run faster, run faster. Long runs serve different purposes, very important ones, but speed is not among them. Therefore, if the goal is to run faster, then you don't want to bring a tired set of legs to the speedwork session. Previously I would run ten miles at an 8 minute and 30 second pace and my legs would feel leaden when my next session came around on Monday. Now I will run it at a 10:00-10:30 pace. I will still get the benefits of the long run and my legs will have to recover less for the speedwork sessions. I will make dramatic improvements, God willing, by putting in less effort except for the one speedwork session each week.

Hudson Taylor and How This Applies to Life

Hudson Taylor was a remarkable missionary who created and led the China Inland Mission CIM) organization, dedicated to the evangelization of China. This effort was a monumental undertaking and he threw all of his energy into it. One day he received a letter from a missionary that told him he had discovered a secret that was only a secret because it was misunderstood. The secret was: "To let my loving Saviour work in me His will... Abiding not striving or struggling." [All quotes are from John Pollock, More Than Conquerors: Portraits of Believers From All Walks of Life, John Woodbridge, ed. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1992), p.54]

When Taylor read this it was as if scales of blindness fell off his eyes. He could see how all of his anxious striving was in vain and counter-productive. "Taylor [decided he] must not struggle for strength or peace but rest in the strength and peace of Christ. [Taylor wrote] 'I have striven in vain to abide in Him. I'll strive no more. For has not He promised to abide with me--never to leave me, never to fail me?'

"'Think what it involves,' he wrote. 'Can Christ be rich and I be poor? Can your right hand be rich and your left poor?'"

By 1895 the CIM was the largest Protestant body in all of China. His work for the CIM began when he set sail for China in 1866 (1866--144-13I, 72-5I) and arrived in that same year. He retired as the General Director of CIM in 1902 (1902--144-13C, 72-5C).

The End Point of History

To what does history tend? What is its goal? The Bible answers this clearly: rest, or perfect peace. When we come to the seventh and final day of the creation week we do not have activity, we have rest.

Since the Biblical vision of time is fractal, a day is like a thousand years. And so we find this seventh day culmination of rest is repeated at the larger scales of measure, like the concluding seventh millennium of human history. (We are nearing the advent of this millennium.) This end point is one wherein wars and strivings cease, and a perfect peace reigns over the earth through the righteous rule of the Christ.

Just as in running so also in life: I need to stop trying so hard. I resolve to do so. One of my running sessions will be devoted to one thing: gliding. Yes, there are running exercises designed to improve your form by accelerating to a fairly fast pace and then letting the momentum carry you as you lightly move your feet. You glide. It is an exercise in effortlessness and it symbolizes my resolution for the year. I want to strive as little as possible so that I may produce a far more abundant harvest.

Grace and peace,

Tom