Devotion- A Pair of Cleats
“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever;…But the Helper the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in y name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.” – John 14: 16 and 26
I spend 10 years of my life as a track athlete, and before I actually started running for a real track team, I had dreams of running track at the Drake Relays someday. Part of being an athlete is setting lofty goals for yourself. In high school, my goals were making it to state and breaking 16 in the 100 hurdles. In college, they became running at Drake and becoming All-American. I ended up being able to reach all of those goals. I absolutely could not have reached those goals on my own, however. Throughout my time as an athlete, I had incredible coaches and teammates that helped me every step of the way, and throughout those 10 years I had two trusty pairs of track spikes that helped me (more on that later.) I think that we as Christians also have a very lofty goal. That goal can be seen in Hebrews 12:1-2 “Therefore, since we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for h joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” I believe that our goal as a Christian is to get ourselves to Jesus so that we can receive his gift of Grace and, therefore, a place in heaven someday. Now is that something that we can do on our own? Not even close. I can not even take the very first step toward Jesus on my own. The good news is… I do not have to. Jesus says in John chapter 14 that he will ask the Father to send a helper (The Holy Spirit). A cool thing that I learned in my college doctrine classes: the word Helper is translated from a Greek word “parakletos” which, when pronounced, sounds a lot like “pair of cleats”. What athlete hasn’t used a pair of cleats to help them towards their goals at some point? This absolutely makes me think of my trusty track spikes helping me take the steps needed to reach my goals. In the same way, the Holy Spirit is what helps us take every step we need to receive faith and forgiveness in baptism and the Lords Supper. Now even with that trusty pair of cleats, an athlete may fail to reach their goal, however, with the help of the Holy Spirit, we will never fail to find Christ in his word and sacraments. What a powerful helper we have!
