Running the Race

Believers are called to run a race for God.  For the non-athletic among us, that terminology has little appeal, but to the writer of Hebrews, it was a vivid picture that his audience was well aware of.  Foot races in the arena, with crowds of spectators shouting their encouragement, were occasions for the best to be given, training weights to be laid aside, and endurance stretched to the maximum.  Likewise, the believer is encouraged, and even admonished, to run the “track” laid before her – to run it with freedom, with endurance, with self-control, and in pursuit of rewards that are imperishable.  It is a race to be run well, to finish, and to win.  It is the life of the believer, lived not for self, but for the glory of God, fulfilling the unique purpose that believer has been given, and testifying always of the grace of God that enables her to run.
Sometimes we learn best from the youngest among us, and sometimes what God most wants is seen in their lives.  The young student I met at a speech meet I was judging, gave an incredible testimony that he was running the race well.  Fighting a life-threatening illness, living with a childhood turned upside down by doctors and needles, medications and surgical procedures, he stood before a room full of other students and some of their family members, and spoke of realities that could cripple the faith of an adult, and told how those realities were being used by God to fulfill the unique purposes God had for him.  His faith was unquenchable; his life, a radiating testimony to the glory of God.  I was unquestionably challenged.

How do we do that?  How do we run the track we are on with its potholes, distractions, and detours?  How do we keep on going and maintain the endurance that is needed? Hebrews 12 not only calls us to run well, but it also gives to us the example of Christ Himself.  The shameful death He died was reserved for the lowest of the low, the worst of the worse.  In naked humiliation, He was ridiculed, dishonored, and shamed.  He became the very sin God hated – the sin of the pedophile, the sin of the murderer, the sin of the adulterer, the sin of the liar, the sin of the gossiper.  Why was He willing to do such a thing?  Simply because He loves us.  His love is part of the joy that was set before Him – the joy of completing the will of His Father, the joy of the promise of resurrection and exaltation, the joy of the future certainty of presenting His redeemed ones before His Father in heaven.  We will neverstruggle as Christ struggled.  He too was asked to run a race – and He did so willingly.  He did it with a profound love within Himself for all of humanity and for the Creator of that humanity.  He did it because He looked ahead to a future joy – a joy that could not be taken from Him.  And yet God gives still more than the example of His Son.  He gives us His grace – just as He gives it to a young boy whose faith is unquenchable.  Precious believer, may we all run well – may we finish and may we win.

                                                                                       – Bev

(Related Bible reading: Hebrews 12:1- 4)