Running the Race - Devotion for 7/12/07

Running the Race – Devotion for 7/12/07

Back when I was in high school I was a runner. I ran track and cross country, and I was not great, but I was good enough to earn a walk-on spot on the cross country team at Campbell University (which really isn’t saying all that much). I always enjoyed the fellowship of running with other guys, and although it is an individual sport, there is great satisfaction when done as a team. When I started running with the cross country team early in my freshman year at Campbell, I began to understand the true diligence that I had to maintain to be a successful runner – eating right, sleeping enough, keeping up my grades so that I could stay on the team, etc. It didn’t take me too long to realize that being a part of the cross country team was way more of a commitment than what I wanted to make, and so I quit before we even had our first meet. I quit because I didn’t want to have to maintain the diligence necessary to be competitive. In short, I quit because I was lazy.

I believe Paul addresses spiritual laziness in 1 Corinthians 9:24-27. In this passage, Paul uses the image of runners who run in a race, but he reminds them that only one runner wins the prize, and then he encourages the people of Corinth to “run in such a way that you may win” (1 Corinthians 9:24). He’s not saying that only one person will receive a heavenly reward, but he is encouraging all to run as if that was the case. “Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable” (1 Cor. 9:25). He wants us to run the race of life with due diligence, as if to run to win, instead of just finishing the race. Sometimes in life we become spiritually lazy. Sometimes we just don’t want to have to maintain the effort to continue to grow in Christ. Instead of running through life to win, we just sort of “slog” (slow jog) our way trying to get to the end. Listen to Paul today – run this life as if to win. Maintain the self-control he speaks of; train diligently studying the word of God and maintaining constant communication with God. At the end of the race, let’s not look and just say that we finished. Let us look back and say that we gave God our best.