You’ve probably all seen a race, whether Olympic track and field on television or a local high school track meet. Imagine the amount of times that you have seen someone come blasting off the starting blocks. They come out strong and begin to build ground and make space between them and their competitors. As the race continues though, sometimes these people begin to fade. Sometimes they even finish last, as they did not pace themselves and those who came out at a paced speed pass them by. The winners have set a pace that they can maintain until the end of the race, even speeding up towards the end to finish strong.
I have witnessed this many times in elementary cross country races as these young athletes have very little concept of what pace to run. The gun goes off and you see a runner of a younger age take off. Unfortunately, you sometimes see that runner slowing down tremendously or even walking in the very near future. Usually, you see them grasping at their sides and potentially even telling the spectators that they don’t have enough to finish. Your heart goes out to these runners as you know that they didn’t begin the race with the reality of the length in mind. Typically, these runners have not trained to build their endurance to complete a race at that pace. As Christians, we have to understand the cost of the race and make sure we are striving to finish well.
In Acts, Paul was speaking to the Ephesian elders and informing them that he would have to go to Jerusalem and that none of them would see him again.
“And now I am bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don’t know what awaits me, except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead. But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus–the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God. And now I know that none of you to whom I have preached the Kingdom will ever see me again. I declare today that I have been faithful….” Acts 20:22-26a
If anyone had experienced difficulties throughout the journey, it was the apostle Paul. Paul had faced much persecution and hardship. As he was speaking to the Ephesian elders, though, he stated that his life would be worth nothing unless he used it for finishing well. Paul had done many things for Christ and had been a witness throughout much of the world, but yet he did not feel that his work would be worthy if he didn’t finish what God had assigned to him. Paul wanted to finish well even though he knew what hardships awaited him on the journey. His work was to continue to tell others the Good News of the wonderful grace of God until the very end no matter what difficulties he might face.
We do see this in the Christian faith like we see it in a physical race. Sometimes we see people that start their Christian journey on fire for God, but have not trained to continue with that pace. They were passionate and emotional as they began their relationship, but they hadn’t put in the work with spiritual disciplines to build their endurance. Slowly you begin to see them lessen their pace. Sometimes you see them spiritually holding their sides and wondering if the race is worth the cost. In Luke 14, Jesus taught about the cost of being a disciple.
“But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first calculating the cost to see if there is enough money to finish it? Otherwise you might complete only the foundation before running out of money, and then everyone would laugh at you. They would say, ‘There’s the person who started that building and couldn’t afford
to finish it.’”
Our goal should be to finish the Christian life well. It never stops and we have never arrived. It is great if we have done things in the past that are worthy of praise for God, but we cannot stop and relish that. We have not completed what God has set forth for us to do unless we continue in His ministry until the final day of our lives. Our prayer should be that God helps us pace ourselves through this Christian life so we do not fade before the finish, but continue in our Christian faith with strength and a push on our final journey.
This blog was written by Amy Carrico: Author of Making the Moments Matter Blog
Last Updated on April 18, 2024
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