Lessons from Running with Friends, Part 2
Posted by nathan on 20 Jul 2007 | Tagged as: my life., thoughts on god., thoughts on life.
I have been running for about six weeks now. I am running a 5K race next Friday night!
Normally when I run, there is no one to push me. If I want to slow down, I just slow down. If I want to walk, I walk.
But this week, when I was Running with Friends, it was much different. I had to think about it before slowing down, ‘What will they think if i stop now?’, ‘I’m supposed to be the one in shape here,’ etc.
When Running with Friends, it no longer becomes easy to slack. It is much harder to slow down. There is power in peer pressure.
That is why I think it’s important for us to not attempt to do our walk with Christ all on our own. If we’re on our own, it’s very easy to slow down, or to stop and walk altogether. There is power in peer pressure. When you don’t feel so great, there’s someone else there pushing you along.
I needed that peer pressure when I ran with friends a few days ago. And I need that peer pressure in my every day walk with Jesus, as well.
Questions:
What happens when the people we run with aren’t like us, i.e. we have no positive peer pressure, but only negative peer pressure?
What happens when we try to avoid all peer pressure completely? Is this a good mechanism, or a poor one?
3 Comments »
on 20 Jul 2007 at 12:19 pm 1.
Todd Helmkamp said …
My one regret about not buying a house in Waterloo is that I can’t run with you guys.
We need to hang out more. I need more of the good kind of peer pressure!
on 20 Jul 2007 at 2:27 pm 2.
nathan said …
Todd,
Do you want to run the 5K with me next Friday night at 7?
that would be fun! I think (I hope) I’ve talked Isaac into running with me, too!
on 21 Jul 2007 at 12:33 pm 3.
Todd Helmkamp said …
You know, I would, I really would, but I was sweating and out of breath after moving 10 boxes from the bedroom to the living room last night (a grand total of maybe 20 feet). I would die after a block. I am getting back in shape though.