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Running The 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 12:1-2)

                Another of those well-loved passages. We imagine ourselves in a spectacular race, as spiritual Eric Liddells with our heads thrown back, crossing the finish line and winning the gold. We imagine the audience consists of God, plus the angels, plus the Christians who have gone before us, and maybe some Christians alive around us. And we think we need their applause and cheers (and we may well be right!) What we don’t tend to consider is that our audience isn’t limited to those listed above. It also includes the demons, our enemies, and those who are wondering what’s going on.

                There are people who are negatively motivated. If they are told that they can’t do it, they go do it. We need to develop some of that. We sometimes hear or read about spiritual battle, and we often seem to think winning means defeating the enemy in some sort of swordfight. But what if the spiritual battle involves throwing off everything that hinders, etc., and running. Spiritual battle might involve getting up fifteen minutes early and reading the Bible. Or it might look like praying for your enemies.

                The thing about running with perseverance is that it requires that we run with perseverance. We have to keep running, even when we’re tired. Even when we’re bored. Even when it looks like the “other guy” is about to lap us. Perseverance means no giving up. Granted, we may fail, and when we fail, we may need time to recover. But the point is that we don’t give up until we fail, and we keep our recovery time as short and thorough as possible so we can start running again.

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