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TIRED AND MAD AT MILE 25

There's kind of a sweet tradition that happens every March here in Los Angeles as 20,000 athletes get ready to run in the L.A. marathon. Heavyweight champion boxer Muhammed Ali stands at the starting line along with LA Mayor to help start the runners out on that long 26.2-mile course.

Ali, of course, is hugely popular, especially in Los Angeles, and he flashes that beautiful smile of his and gives a trademark little wave as people surge past the starting line.

But it's kind of a bittersweet thing, really — and those who see Ali have it kind of tug at their hearts. Because this 61-year-old athlete, formerly one of the world's greatest physical specimens of all time, three-time title holder, is just a shell of what he used to be. All of those vicious boxing matches have taken their toll; Parkinson's Disease has taken its toll, and Ali really isn't able to "float like a butterfly, sting like a bee" as he used to do to Sonny Liston and George Foreman and Leon Spinks. I imagine that if we could interview him, he'd tell us, very slowly, how he's still the prettiest athlete in the world. But it's a sad truth that Ali today can't do what the Ali of old used to do.

Being down at the Marathon course like we are gives us a chance to do a major follow-up on a week of programs we did last March on the topic of the marathon. You'll remember that our writer/producer, David Smith, was ready to tackle that course and come home in a brand new Mercedes-Benz. Well, now that it's after the fact, I can reveal to you that things didn't go quite that wonderfully. In fact, he confessed to me later, "Lonnie, I spent the first three miles of the race thinking about that Mercedes and the last 10 miles thinking about an ambulance instead." It would be indiscreet for me to tell you what his finishing time was, but I'll just say that it was a bit later than he had counted on; in fact, the race officials monitoring the finish line had all gone home by the time he finally got there.

But here's the point. Just about every runner out on that course, by the time they got to Mile 25, were different runners than when they started. The aching muscles, the blisters, the battering your joints take from pounding on the pavement for four or five hours, the emotional and mental fatigue from being out there in a driving cold rain (it sounds like David's making excuses now) . . . listen, friend, when you got close to the finish line, you didn't have the strengths that you had before. The "Before" and "After" pictures were quite something to see.

In all of sports, this fading effect, this slow wearing out, is an ever-present factor, a threat you can't avoid. If you watched some of those marvelous Wimbledon matches just a few weeks ago, and Jeannie and I saw little bits on BBC television in our motel room in The Netherlands while we were there — you saw how sometimes in a fifth set, fatigue HAD to be a factor. One men's semifinal went just a shade over FOUR HOURS! Serves and volleys and returns just didn't have the POP that they did back when it was two games apiece in the first set.

How is it with God? All this week that's been our question here on the Voice of Prophecy. Does fatigue take its toll on Him? Do His abilities wear down as the long centuries slowly spin their way into history? Is He not able to do today the kinds of unbelievable things He did in the past?

Obviously the answer is no . . . and you would know that without me preaching this elementary truth at you over these airwaves. God is unchanging and unchangeable in His nature, in His character, in His plan of salvation, in His government and His rules, and in His attitudes. And yes, He's unchanging in His strengths and His abilities. But have you ever focused on what that means? What are the implications of having a God who can still do the miraculous? Does it impact your life, knowing that God still has the musclepower and the firepower that we see etched in the pages of biblical history?

Right away, I can tell you one simple and beautiful way that God's unfading abilities and strengths can impact your life. Can you imagine the mental and emotional outlook of a runner out there at Mile 24 or 25 in the marathon? You greet someone or wave to them at that juncture in the race and what are you likely to get in return? David admitted to me that he probably would have said at that point: "I will KILL whoever got me out on this course." Which is an attitude he repented of after a few days of rest. But our fatigue and our human frailties affect our feelings for others. When we're weak, we're sometimes mean and brutish as well.

But never with God, friend. Can you imagine what it means to know that you can ALWAYS go to Him and find Him at full strength, at full alert? "Tanned, rested, and ready"? He's never busy; He's never bored; He's never not at home.

The other day I called one of my associates on the phone and happened to catch him in a moment of frustration and maybe fatigue. A meeting had gone about an hour longer than he had thought it would OR SHOULD. "Hello, this is Lonnie." (**VERY SHORT**) "What?" Kind of short and clipped and obviously impatient. And that's how we are. I've done it too. But never God.

We've appreciated this week the opportunity of sharing with you A. W. Tozer's book, A Knowledge of the Holy, and dropping in a few little nuggets. Here's another priceless one:

"In coming to God at ANY time we need not wonder whether we shall find Him in a receptive mood. He is always receptive to misery and need, as well as to love and faith. He does not keep office hours nor set aside periods when He will see no one. Neither does He change His mind about anything. Today, this moment, He feels toward His creatures, toward babies, toward the sick, the fallen, the sinful, exactly as He did when He sent His only-begotten Son into the world to die for mankind."

You know, I like that. And so often, especially as I try to lift the heavy mantle of leadership here at the Voice of Prophecy with its long and respected 65-year history of Christian broadcasting, I need to KNOW that God isn't tired of helping us. We FLOOD Him with prayers, during our Thursday morning prayer sessions and all week long and all through the weekend and my own personal little devotional moments at home or on the road. It never wears Him out; He exhibits no impatience . . . even when I'd expect Him to be impatient with my repeated foolish mistakes. No, in His attitudes of forgiveness and patience AND providence, my God is always at peak strength.

I like to focus as well on God's unchanging miracle-working powers. Six thousand years ago He created this planet in six days. Six days! And today He can do just as well. He hasn't lost it. In Bible days my God could part the waters; He still can. My God commanded heavenly armies; He still has them. My God healed the sick; He still does. Here in 1995 He still touches hearts and draws sinners to Himself and rejoices over every lost lamb coming into the fold just as He's always done. The parties in heaven when a sinner repents have the same level of intense joy; the fireworks and bells and whistles are just as loud and long as they were in the heavenly parties Jesus described 2,000 years ago in the book of Luke.

I'm reminded of the old campfire song:

"God can do anything . . . anything . . . ANYTHING. God can do anything but fail."

I'm so thankful today for our unchanging God and our unchanging Savior. I'm thankful that their abilities and their strengths are undimmed and undiminished. The same God who answered Moses' prayers and Daniel's prayers and even the prayers that Jesus groaned in the Garden of Gethsemane — the same God is alertly able to answer MY prayers and YOUR prayers right now, today.

As we end this week, let me add a closing thought. This same God who is so wonderfully predictable . . . is also full of surprises. He's unchanging — and yet Jeannie and I discover new things about Him every single day of our lives. We read our Bibles and we think we know what He's like — and then He comes in and does something so unexpected, so breathtaking, so powerful in its PERSONAL expression of His love for us — that we can't find the words to tell about it. Talk about surprises from a predictable God!

In First Corinthians chapter two, the Apostle Paul records some of my favorite words. Verse nine; here they are:

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him."

Of course, Paul is quoting from the prophet Isaiah, who in chapter 64, says the same thing to those listening to him. "You think you know God?" he asks. "You think you can predict or imagine what God is going to do for you? Man, you have no idea."

I want to say something to you right now. Prepare to be surprised. The Bible is full of descriptive words about heaven; it's a golden thread running from Genesis to Revelation. I say again: prepare to be surprised. Do you have a mental picture of heaven? Prepare to discard it and start anew when you get there. Our predictable God, our God who never changes . . . is getting something ready that you CANNOT imagine.

Maybe you've had the experience of watching a baby being born. And you knew all the facts. You took Sex Ed 101. You knew how it got in there; you knew all the processes and what was taking place during those nine months. But when you saw the miracle of birth actually happen, when you saw the handiwork of God up close and in glorious, intimate detail . . . it took your breath away, didn't it? Your preconceived ideas were shattered. Your predictable, unchanging God took you by surprise.

Friend, get ready to have that happen to you again.