Time To Run!

It goes by so fast. For years we prepare to watch the Olympics and then in two weeks it’s all over. Before we know it, it’s over for us. Not so for the athletes. Their Olympic journey start each and every day of their lives. They have times when they relax a little over the four years leading up to these games but most of the time, as some people say, “they’re on”. And they are.

But back to us. We don’t practise sitting in front of the television getting ready for the games just as we don’t practise sitting preparing for the Grey Cup, NHL playoffs, or the World Cup. We just don’t. We are observers in the entertainment bleachers of sport. For us it’s a pass time. And maybe it’s past time for us to participate.

Over these last two weeks, I have taken to observing may individual athlete faces. We can all see the focus they have before the gun goes off, the determined look as they strained to win, and then the “thrill of victory”. We have it played before us in replay after replay. How wonderful to see these varied expressions and realize the training that has continually gone on and lasted for years before this one and only moment. For some of the athletes it is over in a heartbeat, while other struggle for hours and even days.

In 2 Timothy 4:7, we read, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith”. This scripture is for all of us. It distinctly tells us we are all in the race. But more than that it tells us we will all finish. We are all racing toward heaven. The prize is heaven. We will all attain it. Just as every runner crosses the finish line, we all will in crossing the line.

But I’m thinking about more than this. I’m thinking we should all get up off the couch, out of our chair, off the comfortable pew and encourage others to join us in training for the race set before us. To read God’s work, to shake off the sin that entangles us and to run with perseverance the race set before us. For too long we have been sitting doing little else then watch the ‘paid’ coach. Time to shake things up. Time to run together and get everyone to join us in this race. No more sitting watching.

Something to think about.

Rob