Running the Race
It's spring and the temperatures are finally getting warmer...so when I sit in the morning at Starbucks I can see the physical education students at Willowcreek Middle School running around the track. There is not a single cell in my body that longs for those days back! I was very often one of the last ones to finish the run or the race (because all middle school boys treat a run as a race)—but at least I finished!
And yet, where did I end up when I was done? Right back where I started, just as these students across the street will. No matter how many laps you might do, you all end up right back where you started. The starting line is the finish line. After all that running, you literally end up no further along than when you began.
When the Apostle Paul wrote about running a race, I'm pretty sure that's not what he had in mind.
Near the end of his life, Paul says that he has "finished the race" (2 Timothy 4:7). He has done what he was called to do and he knew he was crossing the finish line. But, for Paul, that wasn't the same place he started. Not by a long shot! Paul had begun, you may remember, as a persecutor of Christians and then became a Christian himself. Paul then spent the rest of his life traveling all over the Roman Empire to bring the good news to all who would listen. He rarely stayed long in one place, though he was in Corinth 18 months and in Ephesus for three years (and having visited both of those sites, I agree they would have been great places to stay for a while!). But most of his life he was on the move, ever restless to tell one more person the story of Jesus.
Paul didn't plan to end up back where he started, and so he didn't. He was always pressing on, moving forward, eyes on the goal. There was an endpoint, a goal to reach toward, and Paul was headed there. And because he kept pressing on, the world came to know the Savior.
Another author, writing a bit later than Paul's time, used similar imagery: "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). The goal of our life is Jesus and we are always pressing on, running toward him, away from sin, calling others to follow. The "race of life" is not a race endlessly around a track, in a circle. It's a "race" that goes somewhere, that has a goal of being with Jesus.
And yet, where did I end up when I was done? Right back where I started, just as these students across the street will. No matter how many laps you might do, you all end up right back where you started. The starting line is the finish line. After all that running, you literally end up no further along than when you began.
When the Apostle Paul wrote about running a race, I'm pretty sure that's not what he had in mind.
Near the end of his life, Paul says that he has "finished the race" (2 Timothy 4:7). He has done what he was called to do and he knew he was crossing the finish line. But, for Paul, that wasn't the same place he started. Not by a long shot! Paul had begun, you may remember, as a persecutor of Christians and then became a Christian himself. Paul then spent the rest of his life traveling all over the Roman Empire to bring the good news to all who would listen. He rarely stayed long in one place, though he was in Corinth 18 months and in Ephesus for three years (and having visited both of those sites, I agree they would have been great places to stay for a while!). But most of his life he was on the move, ever restless to tell one more person the story of Jesus.
Paul didn't plan to end up back where he started, and so he didn't. He was always pressing on, moving forward, eyes on the goal. There was an endpoint, a goal to reach toward, and Paul was headed there. And because he kept pressing on, the world came to know the Savior.
Another author, writing a bit later than Paul's time, used similar imagery: "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). The goal of our life is Jesus and we are always pressing on, running toward him, away from sin, calling others to follow. The "race of life" is not a race endlessly around a track, in a circle. It's a "race" that goes somewhere, that has a goal of being with Jesus.
When we were in Olympia, Greece last fall (the birthplace of the Olympics), we got to see the original running track. It isn't round. It is a straight path, leading toward a goal. That's the image that was likely in Paul's mind and in the mind of the author of Hebrews. And it ought to be in our minds as well. When life seems just an endless "rat race," when you feel like you're caught in a circle going round and round, break out of that and pursue the true goal, the real race. Head toward Jesus. He is the goal.
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| Olympia, Greece - Original "Olympic Stadium" (2014) |
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| On the starting line, ready to go • Olympia, Greece (2014) |
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