Articles and Poetry by Our Members
| The Greatest Race |
| Author: Stacie Woodward Entered on: 12/1/2007 2:51:56 PM |
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| ”I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” 2 Timothy 4:7 (ESV) About 1 ˝ years ago, I decided to start running for exercise. I am very slow and will never break any records, but I have participated in a couple of races and spent many hours training and pushing myself to get stronger. During these hours of running, my mind has often drifted to the verse above. Why did Paul compare the spiritual life to a race? I have meditated on this a lot, and God has shown me several ways in which my physical training compares to the spiritual “race” which Paul was speaking of. One of the thoughts God has brought to my mind is that a race is work and requires much training and discipline. Notice that Paul didn’t compare the Christian life to a vacation or a luxurious lifestyle; he compared it to a fight and a race. Both of these events conjure images of people red-faced and sweating, pushing themselves to the limits of their physical abilities. I recently ran a 5K, and after I was done I went back to the finish line to watch the other runners finish the half-marathon. I didn’t see a bunch of people nonchalantly strolling by. They were finishing an arduous journey. All were sweating and breathing heavy, some were even wincing in pain with each step. This is what Paul was comparing the Christian life to: a difficult journey that causes us to work hard and occasionally feel pain. My husband’s late grandpa used to say that “Calvinists can not just sit down on Sovereignty.” What he meant is that believing in the sovereignty of God does not give us an excuse to be spiritually lazy. The same can be applied to running. Imagine that you knew God had appointed you to win the 2007 Boston Marathon. Would you decide to skip training and just show up on Race Day expecting to win? Of course not! The other runners would think you were insane if you announced at the starting line that you had not trained at all for this race! Even if you knew you were destined to win, you would still recognize the importance of training. In fact, knowing that you were going to win would probably make you train even harder. Christians should look at their spiritual race the same way. Just because you know God has saved you, doesn’t mean that you can be lazy and skip your training. Just as the marathon runner trains with his/her eyes on the finish line, we should train with our eyes fixed on Heaven beyond the finish line. That should be what pushes us to “run,” even on days when we would rather stay in bed. While watching the half-marathon runners finish their race, I noticed there was one thing they all had in common. All of them were excited to see the finish line. That was what all their training and discipline had been for. Crossing the finish line was why they dragged themselves out of bed early in the morning to run. Suddenly all the pain and hard work they had put into running the race was forgotten, and the joy of hearing everyone cheer them on as they crossed was worth every ounce of sweat they had shed. Isn’t that a beautiful picture of the Christian life? We should be pouring ourselves into our work here on Earth, and at times we may get exhausted and burnt-out. But what joy and satisfaction we will experience when, after persevering, we cross the “finish line” into Heaven! Peter wrote in 2 Peter 3:14, “Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless.” Looking forward to Heaven should produce diligence in our Christian lives, and give us motivation to finish our “race.” |
