RUNNING OUR RACE

Where I live there are several organized long distance bicycle races. This is a rural and mountainous region at high elevation and presents strong challenges for the cyclist. Often I have seen the roads and highways marked with temporary paint to mark out the racecourse for distances along the route for the racers. These are races for the experienced, the fit and the challenged.

Not long ago while out on a walk I saw these marks on a near-by road and immediately thought of the words written by Paul, an apostle, in the Book of Hebrews, “Let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.” He makes it clear that we each have a race marked out for us. It is our race to run and no one can run it for us. It is marked out only for us. I cannot run your race and you cannot run mine.

In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians he wrote, “Surely you know that many runners take part in a race, but only one of them wins the prize. Run, then, in such a way as to win the prize. Every athlete in training submits to strict discipline, in order to be crowned with a wreath that will not last; but we do it for one that will last forever.”

Run to win! Race to win! Our prize is one that will last forever. It is certainly OK to win now, but let’s make sure we win for keeps in the most important race… the one that lasts forever. Besides that, I don’t like losing.

“For you gave him authority over all people, so that he might give eternal life to all those you gave him. And eternal life means to know you, the only true God, and to know Jesus Christ, whom you sent.” Jesus