I didn’t wear my Garmin running watch for about a week. During that time, I still ran. I actually even ran pretty fast on a few of those days. And then when I put my watch back on, it told me that my VO2 Max had dropped from 63 to 60 and my predicted 5k time was 40 seconds slower! I’m losing it!

And obviously nothing had changed (except that my watch tan line was a little less aggressive). But I think in running and in life, we often function like we “are only as good as our most recent performance.” When your last recorded run was a scintillating workout, you feel like you’re primed for a personal best. And when you jog slowly, your Garmin might convince you that you’re horrendously out of shape.

And spiritually, we sometimes convince ourselves that our proverbial VO2 Max is colossally plummeting if we haven’t dedicated any time to a specific ministry for a few days. And then we “feel” more worthy of God’s favor and on-track for a Heavenly Personal Best when we have recorded some particularly “impressive” acts of service.

Run the race set before you with consistency and gratitude. But don’t subconsciously spiral into a self-induced works-based scoring system where you get so caught up in the “doing” that you miss out on the “being.” You’ll eventually cross the Finish Line victoriously…but not because of your most recent Spiritual Smartwatch data