Your heart pounds. You hear the roar and look around. You find yourself surrounded by an enormous cheering crowd in a huge Olympic stadium. You look down to see that you are not only in a big stadium, but you are on the track…and your toes are on the starting line!
The starter raises his arm to fire the gun to start the race and your pulse quickens. But as you look down you realize with surprise that you’re not even close to being ready to run. You’re wearing big heavy boots and there are ropes and chains wrapped around your ankles. You’re clothes are heavy and baggy. Suddenly you can’t catch your breath. The pistol sounds and you lunge forward but immediatly fall to the track.
Sound like a bad dream?
Guess what…it’s not a dream.
It’s your life.
Hebrews 12:1 says, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.”
All of us find ourselves in a race that we’re ill prepared to run. We refuse to train. We insist on carrying unnecessary baggage. And we continue to tolerate sin in our lives and that trips us up and keeps us from running with endurance.
We’re trying to run a race we have no hope of finishing because we don’t choose to run like winners. How do winners run?
- Strip off every weight. Get rid of the baggage; the bad relationships, the wrong job, the bad habits, the extra weight, the finacial mismanagement and other entanglements that only serve to slow you down and keep you from running fast and light.
- Shed the sin that so easily trips you up. Sin is a handicap that you don’t have to live with. But chances are, you’re currently tolerating sin in your life because you don’t see it as a threat. Trust me…it’s a threat. Sin isn’t static. It grows and bears fruit. And that’s a harvest you can ill-afford.
- Run with endurance. Running with endurance is a mindset. What you need to understand is that the finish line doesn’t come when you die. Death only marks the end of your leg of the race. The finish line is a line you won’t cross. But your children or their children will. What are you doing now with the leg of the race that’s been entrusted to you? Are you running to endure?
We all have a leg to run. It’s our responsibility to run as far and as fast as we can; to do our part. So, get rid of the baggage. Shake loose the sin. Run for the long haul.
It’s an amazing race indeed.
I think it’s so easy to be focused on myself and how life is affecting me. The reminder that I’m running a leg of the race and passing the baton to my children and them to their children…that what I do in life affects the whole team is sobering and needs to be posted on every mirror in the house. The fact that I’ll see the reminder posted on the mirror more than anywhere else in the house is telling :/