WE WERE NEVER ASKED TO WIN THE RACE
Do you remember the relief you felt when you realized the exam you’ve been stressing over wouldn’t be timed? Or when you heard that the big project you’ve been assigned at work won’t have a close deadline? So many of the things that stir up anxiety in our personal and professional lives revolve around this concept of time. Losing it, wasting it, or not spending it in the most efficient way… I’m sure we’ve all heard the saying that “Life is a marathon, not a sprint.” Although there is so much truth to that, there is one BIG thing you should remember. We were never asked to win the race. Just to finish!
This thought was extremely convenient to keep in the back of my mind as I was running my half-marathon this past weekend. My friend and I had a goal from the start – to just keep running for 13.1 miles straight. I know that may sound like an easy goal to reach, but long-distance running doesn’t come too naturally for us! We knew that if we tried to break a certain time or finish with a specific rank, our training would be 10x more difficult and it would suck all the joy out of our experience. So instead, we did our best to stick to a consistent training routine over a three month period and as we did, it became easier and easier to hit our high-mileage goals. By the time race day came around, we surprised ourselves with our own fitness level and ended up beating our anticipated finish time!
This comparison between running a race and our journey through life has been around for quite some time. But if you really think about it, it is an exceptional metaphor to describe all of the unique paths, turns, elevations, dead-ends, and victories we may experience before we cross the finish line of our lives. The Apostle Paul even used it to illustrate the endurance, strength, and vision he felt was required to accomplish the purpose God had set before him:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.
Hebrews 4: 7-8
But let’s look a little closer. Paul mentioned that he finished the race; he didn’t say anything about winning! In fact, he made it seem like even finishing was something he had to work ridiculously hard for. Therefore, he was joyously awaiting the reward of righteousness that God had prepared and planned to provide for him. But get this… Paul was promised the prize without a guarantee of winning. Why? Because only God can bring the ultimate victory. So that when we win, He (not us) receives all the glory.
Run At Your Own Pace
Before my half-marathon, my two friends and I arrived, warmed-up, and even started the race at the same time together. We managed to run alongside one another for the first nine miles but eventually broke off from each other and finished the race at different times. It made sense though, as we had all trained separately and had varying split times throughout training. If we had all tried to keep up with someone who was running at a faster pace, we would have burnt out early and never been able to finish the race. And if we had tried to stick with someone running much slower, it would have also started to deplete our energy reserve.
All this to say that running steady doesn’t always mean running at the same pace as someone else. Let that sink in. Just like you never really know what someone else is going through just by looking at them, we also don’t know what could be weighing someone down on their journey to the finish line. They could look like they’re in better shape or have even put in more training hours, but they have a lot more baggage they’re carrying along with them too. The truth is that we just never know.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Hebrews 12: 1-2
Life is a race… but it doesn’t have to be a competition! I probably wouldn’t have been able to finish with a consistent mile time without identifying a person running around my same pace a few yards ahead of me and trying to stay the same distance behind her. Throughout every phase of our lives, we should strive to surround ourselves with people who are also ahead of us in years, experience, or maturity to help guide us along the way and encourage us in right way to go. The women I paced behind during my marathon probably had no idea I was using them to pace myself, just as I was oblivious to other people that could have been doing the exact same thing with me. Whether we realize it every day or not, we are influencing someone. As women in Christ, let’s partner alongside one another to finish the race well and use our influence for good and for His glory.
Focus on the Finish Line
Just like the intense training before a half-marathon is intended to build up our physical endurance for race day, all of the trials and triumphs in your life have been designed to increase your spiritual endurance as well. God has promised to light up the path to the finish line for us, but it is our responsibility to move in His direction. In life, similar to any race or competition, it is so important to begin with the end in mind. We have to keep our eyes focused on the eternal prize and the things that really matter in order to stay motivated to finish well!
In our personal relationship with the Lord, it takes some serious discipline and self-control to keep the faith without being consumed by the temptations and distractions around us. So many things are constantly battling for our focus and attention. Even if you feel like you’ve already lost today, be encouraged by the fact that you’ve actually already won! It all lies in understanding the power that is held within the eternal prize that has already been offered to us.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
1 Corinthians 9: 24-27
I don’t necessarily take this to mean that out of the 7.7 billion people living on the Earth right now, God has only selected one person to win the race and His prize of eternal life. But rather, that the prize of eternal life with Jesus should be so enticing and inspiring that it makes people fight to the finish in order to win first place. The emphasis for us, therefore, should be on finding the best strategy to run so “that we may obtain it.” Life was never promised to be easy. But as slow and steady often helps ‘win the race,’ we have also been called to live our life steadily focused on living our lives with greater purpose and receiving the ultimate prize of eternal life that God has already prepared for us.
Just Keep Running
One of my favorite professors in college once shared a story with my class that has stuck with me until now. It was the story of a young woman named Florence Chadwick who attempted to swim from Catalina Island in the Pacific Ocean to the mainland of California in 1952. It was freezing and extremely foggy the morning she got into the water to swim that she could barely see the guide boats beside her. She swam for fifteen long hours straight before putting her hands up and begging to be brought out of the water.
She was so emotionally, physically, and mentally exhausted that she felt like she couldn’t go on. Her mother, who was in one of the boats moving beside her, yelled out to encourage her saying not to give up because she was so close. But Chadwick chose to stop swimming and was eventually brought out of the water. It wasn’t until she was on the boat that the lights shone through the fog and she realized the shore was less than one mile away. Oh if she had only kept on swimming a little bit more, she would have achieved her goal!
The point of this story is to highlight that we never know how close we are to the end of the race the Lord has set before us. Oftentimes, it feels like we’re being led blindly to the finish of a trial in our life and we don’t know who to trust to get us there. But just like Florence Chadwick’s mom was urging her daughter to continue swimming because she could visibly see the shore from her viewpoint, the Lord is encouraging us to continue running because He already knows the end from the beginning. We have to trust that He will lead us on the best path to achieve our unique purpose and He has promised to never forsake us along the way.
No matter what mile you’re on or where you are in your race through life, I hope you are encouraged that God is not pressuring you to win the race. He has simply called us to be obedient to finish! It won’t be us who will receive the praise when we do, but God who will receive the glory for carrying us. win the race win the race win the race
