This morning I ran in a 5K race. OK, maybe walked/ran is more accurate, but it was good fun and a beautiful day to be outside. As I was running it reminded me of the biblical analogy of our Christian lives being a race.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, 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.” Hebrews 12:1
I could see lots of similarities. Running the race was hard (I was out-of-shape). I wondered why I had signed up for this instead of staying in bed. But, I was running along side three Christian friends and we encouraged each other along the way. Finally we rounded the corner and there it was: the finish line! I took a deep breath and headed straight for it. People were cheering and there was music playing. Crossing the finish line was certainly a celebration!
Unless we run in these races regularly, how often do we actually see a finish line? In my case, not very often, but I really appreciated it this morning. As Thomas made clear in his last post, it’s so important to keep sight of the big picture. 5K is really not that far. Our lives on this earth are really not that long. Running the race and walking with Christ is hard in a broken world (or with an out-of-shape body!) but it doesn’t last forever, we can encourage each other along the way and there’s a huge party waiting for us at the finish line.
Philomena
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