Running Races

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

We are each blessed with two kinds of races.  There is a corporate race we're in together as people of faith, and there is the individual race each of us run that fits like an interlocking piece into the larger faith race.  No matter how old we are, there is a race being run.  The finish line is not the point, it is the getting up and running the race itself.  What race does God call you to persevere in running?

The crowd of all our predecessors is cheering us.  Yet, so many things hinder: thinking we can't, thinking we aren't good enough, thinking we're not smart enough, distractions of every kind and description, and then the sins that entangle often to deaden us to the "not good enough" self-talk.  Almost every great person of faith in the Bible has apparent moments of this kind of struggle.  Moses stammered.  Jonah ran.  Sarah couldn't believe her ears about having a baby in her old age.  They all resisted joining the race at first.  They also all succumbed to picking up the baton and running under whatever "persuasion" God had to use.  The sense we get from each of them is when they do start the races to which they are called a feeling of satisfied completion and peace with themselves takes over.  So throw off whatever hinders you and just start running with it.  It's easier than resisting, because in the end, God WILL have His way.