Finish the Race
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7).
My brother has run a dozen Boston Marathons. I remember one year he was concerned because unusually hot and humid weather was forecasted for the day of the race. It was the kind of heat and humidity that drains your resources in no time and makes you want to just stop running. Race day came and so did the hot and humid weather. My brother’s time was slower than he wanted, but he finished the race.
He was disappointed but I told him to look at the positives. He had beaten the defending champion who dropped out partway through the race and did not finish (DNF). DNF is not what you want to see next to your name under results. It means the race was too hard for you to complete it. It means the course and the conditions beat you. You failed to meet a fundamental goal of running the race. You didn’t finish.
On multiple occasions the Bible uses marathon racing as a metaphor for Christian living. In 1 Corinthians 9:24-25 Paul writes, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”
And the writer of Hebrews tells us how to run: “…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” (Hebrews 12:1-2). He says to do that (focus on Jesus) “so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” (vs. 3) Losing heart makes you want to quit and it’s how the enemy tries to coax you to be a DNF.
Despite harsh and difficult conditions, we need to press on, so that in the end we can say, as the apostle Paul did: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (2 Timothy 4:7)
Are you running your race with perseverance?
Having begun as a guest speaker in 2005, Dan was appointed Interim Pastor in 2008 and has been serving Maple Root Baptist ever since. As a small group leader and Chaplin for the Connecticut Tigers, Dan has a heart for the lost and the God that saves them.