{"id":34819,"date":"2021-07-25T15:26:42","date_gmt":"2021-07-25T14:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=34819"},"modified":"2021-07-25T15:26:42","modified_gmt":"2021-07-25T14:26:42","slug":"no-garlands-for-pacesetters-and-shadow-boxers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=34819","title":{"rendered":"No garlands for pacesetters and shadow boxers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By <strong>Buti Sam Kputu<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I do not run without a definite goal; I do not flail around like one beating the air &#8211; just shadow boxing. (1 Cor. 9:26 AMP).<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a novice in the dynamics of athletics, especially the long distances, I never quite got to understand why one runner would set out with a bang, leading the race, only to drop out. Why the effort? I later got to learn he was a mere pacesetter, helping others to gain momentum and win a prize.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And then I watched a boxer in the gym, throwing punches furiously at the punch bag in preparation for a fight. What if he never gets into the ring for a title fight? All that sweat is in vain?<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Christian life is pretty much like a race and a fight for a prize. None of us is meant to serve as a pacesetter. Neither are we meant to spend all our life practicing in our gyms (churches). There are no medals for&nbsp; pacesetters and shadow boxers. Aim for the prize.<\/p>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u00a9 Buti Sam KPUTU<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Buti Sam Kputu I do not run without a definite goal; I do not flail around like one beating the air &#8211; just shadow boxing. (1 Cor. 9:26 AMP). As a novice in the dynamics of athletics, especially the long distances, I never quite got to understand why one runner would set out with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":34820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5772],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-faith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34819\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}