Run the race

 

  “For I am already being poured out as drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to those who have loved His appearing.” (II Timothy 4:6-8)

 

 

  When I was in high school I decided to try out for the track team my senior year. I had been on the swim team for three years and the season ended in March with the state championships. I was planning to go into the military after graduation, so I wanted to stay in good physical shape. The track team had been practicing for a month already when I went out, and the coach put me with the group that ran the 440. The first weeks of practice were brutal for me. Although in shape for swimming, running uses some different muscles and our practices included sprinting a 220, and walking a 220, ten times, running two 440’s and then a mile run. I was so sore, those first weeks that I walked around like a cripple when I wasn’t at track practice. (There was no such thing as stretching out before and after practice like I have since learned since to do.)

 

   There were two fast runners in my group so that I was only the 3^rdfastest on our team. We were excited to run against another team at the University of Georgia’s new asphalt track for one of our meets. (Our track was cinder.) I was to run the third leg of the 4 X 440 relay and would hand the baton to the fastest man on the team. Our first runner took a good lead and made a clean handoff to the second who maintained the lead. I took the baton and was able to keep well ahead of their 3^rdrunner also. When we came into the exchange zone I was spent, and when I told the last runner to go he took off so fast that I had to lunge to hand him the baton. We dropped it! We were disqualified, and lost the race we had well in hand!

 

   Lately I have been thinking about finishing well. The Apostle Paul in the Scripture above indicates that he had “finished the race,” he had “kept the faith.”  What does that mean for you and I today? Am I still interested in being used by God for anything He has for me to do? Am I making sure the baton has been passed to my children or grandchildren? Yes, I am getting older but that doesn’t mean that God still doesn’t have things for me to do. When Caleb was 85 he asked Joshua if he could have the hill country of Judah. He would take the land, that God had given them, away from the Anakim, the giants that had discouraged the Israelites from entering the Promised Land 40 years earlier. 

 

 The author of Hebrews writes in another letter:

 

 “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, 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 to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:1-2)

 

   

  I want to finish well. I want to keep the faith. I want to keep running the race He has given me to run, and I don’t want to drop any more batons!

 

Pray

 

1.    Lord thank you for the years You have given me to live for you so far, and I thank you for however many more You have for me.

2.    Fill me with Your Spirit today that I can be used by You. I know that I can do nothing of value without You guiding and directing my every word and action.

3.    Thank You Lord for loving me first and calling me to surrender my life to You. I praise You and adore You and I need You to direct my life daily.