Day 7: Finishing the Race - I can only Imagine
Day 7: The End of the Race: I can only imagine
Read: Philippians 3:13-14, 1Corinthians 9:24-27, Hebrews 12:1-2,
Yesterday I read an article about an athlete who set a brand new world
record in the Decathlon at the US Olympic qualifier. For those of you
who do not know, as I guess there might be a few of you out there - The
Decathlon is a rigorous test of an athletes level of endurance over 10
events done over two days. The decathlon is a combined event in
athletics consisting of ten track and field events. and the winners are
determined by the combined performance in all. Performance is judged on a
points system in each event, not by the position achieved.
Traditionally, the title of "World's Greatest Athlete" has been given to
the man who wins the decathlon.
The Decathlon begins with a
100 meter race and ends with event number ten: a grueling 1500 meter
race. In between there are events graduated in difficulty like a shot
put, high jump, discus throws, pole vaulting, javelin throws, hurdles.
Five events of increasing difficulty on day one and five more on day
two. Every part of your body is put to the limit of physical endurance.
It is an accomplishment just to finish it.
Yesterday, American
athlete Ashton Eaton set a world record with 9039 points. He broke the
world record which had stood for an amazing thirteen years. What an
astounding feat of athleticism. World Record setting effort to achieve a
place on the 2012 US Olympic Team heading to London in August. All that
effort just to gain a place on the World Stage in the hope that he
cannot just be the best US athlete but also the best athlete in the
world, proven on the grandest of athletic stages. He is an amazing
individual filled with the nth desire to achieve the greatest prize -
The Best!
"It's like living an entire lifetime in two days,"
Eaton said. "It doesn't mean that much to the rest of the world, but to
me, it's my whole world. To do the best that I possibly could in my
world makes me pretty happy." He won seven of the 10 events and did most
of it in terrible weather — drizzle, rain, cold and then, finally,
sunshine.
What to do for an encore?
Keep training,
keep your mind, body and spirit on the prize that is before him - An
Olympic Gold Medal. He will be the prohibitive favorite to accomplish it
in London. Now, he must work to build on his accomplishments at the
Olympic trials. Use the lessons he has learned from his physical and
spiritual training for the events which set the standard for the rest of
the world to follow and set them aside to start the process of
preparing himself for an even more challenging moment - to become the
Olympic Champion - to achieve ultimate victory on the grandest of world
stages. He must take the lessons he has learned, positive and negative
and set them aside to learn what there is to learn and incorporate into
his training to finish this race.
How about we as Christians? I
don't pretend to know what it is like to train to the level that Mr.
Eaton has done. Athletics were not really my strongest suit. But still
the same, Paul likens the Christian life to an athlete competing in the
great games for which Greece originated. For the Greeks, being the best
of the best meant power and status among the people. The Laurels wreath
placed on their heads was their gold medal. Their very visible sign that
they were role models for other Greeks.
I suppose most of us
have figured out that life itself, whether Christian or otherwise is a
decathlon or as it has often been associated with - the Marathon 26
miles 385 yards of "what have I got myself into now?" Living life is a
measure of endurance - physical, mental, spiritual and much more. Each
day challenges us to set aside the previous one that we may move
forward. Build on yesterday, to accomplish today so to achieve the
victory of gaining our tomorrows. Meditate on that for a moment: the
victory of today is to achieve and gain our tomorrows - 24 consecutive
hours of effort just to get to the finish line which is our tomorrows. A
daily test of rigorous and truly exasperating endurance. Small wonder
Paul likens life to training for athletics.
If you want to keep
moving forward, expecting to achieve the small victories in life,
However you choose to move forward, through prayer, patience or the
sheer will power we have called human optimism, then this passage of
Scripture was written for you to help prepare yourself. To help you put
together a training regimen that will help you grow into the process of
building you up. The process of maturing your life that prayerfully what
ever threatens to bring you down - memories of the past, for example,
will be approached, learned from then set aside to move on in life.
The more I approach this Scripture, the more I study it, the more I
place myself on the inside of it, I realize we cannot simply just forget
about the victory and defeats of yesterday. We just cannot simply try
to convince ourselves that yesterday never really happened the way it
did. We cannot block out the memories or lessons we have learned from
whatever happened. We cannot and do not have the power to change or
modify history. Yesterday, life happened and today and tomorrow life
will continue to happen. Yesterdays challenges exhausted our resources
yet we endured through it all. We worked hard, we gained our greatest
and smallest of victories, We endured yesterday therefore we're
victorious then. Let's achieve victory today.
For example, if
you are running a hurdle race, you cannot afford to worry about the
hurdle you just jumped. You must focus on the next one in front of you.
Run two steps and jump and repeat until you reach the finish line. You
may not finish first but with your best efforts you will finish the race
set before you. If you are not so proficient at jumping hurdles and you
run into the occasional one along the route, your victory is trying to
forget the pain in your leg, the hurdle you just knocked down. Your
victory is the effort you place into the process learning and re
learning to pick your legs up higher and stay focused on not stopping
where you tripped up and to just going forward, gaining the finish line.
The victory is the effort just to finish.
Let us pray,
Creator God,
You have with us from the very beginning. You were there when the race began. So
it is with a humbled sense of desperation and desire for victory that I come to You
seeking Your strength to be mine. I feel as if I have been running a
long time with not so much to show for it. I am tired. I am weary from
running from what I do not understand toward a finish line I cannot see.
Sometimes I am not even sure it is there waiting for me. Sometimes I
feel as though it is only taunting me, encouraging me to stop and just
give up trying to find it. Lord, please, hear my desperate prayer.
Lord Jesus Christ, My desire is for the strength of your grace to
replenish my own depleted stores, for I feel as if I have none of my own
left to continue. The race is long and the course is filled with the
silences in life, expectations and desires not fulfilled by those around
me. Come Holy Spirit, fill me once again with your fires of
perseverance so that Your fulfillment and satisfaction would come into
my life fully satisfying, fully appreciated of Your comfort, love, and
hope. Lord, transform me.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit You have called me on this journey of enduring victory;
To strive to live my life in Your ways so to become more faithful
To learn how to endure the hurdles in my life and to still follow obediently
To humble myself through victory and loss that I may more fully trust
You because You are trust-worthy and true. You are worthy of all glory
honor and praise.
For You do not disappoint. From the very
beginning You have promised to always find a way of making everything
well according to Your timing and plan.
And I believe that You
will still be there at the finish line, waiting for me to finish no
matter how long it takes me to get there.
Still Lord, in those times when I struggle, help me in the midst of my unbelief for
there are things in this world that I pretend to but do not understand;
things I am blind to; so many things I have yet to see and people that i
do not try to understand.
Lord, there are just too many
hurdles to overcome, too many uncertainties and uncontrolled elements.
Lord, I would be the biggest of fools if i say i don't need You.
I
confess I would be convicted of my pride if i ever failed asked for Your
help. Lord, help me with enduring and overcoming the high hurdles of my
foolish pride.
So Father, Son and Holy Spirit, I m asking for
all contentment in You; for full submission to Your will; for wholly
trust into Your plans for my life; for enduring and lasting peace in
falling gracefully into Your sovereignty.
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Search my words and my prayers, may they ever be true to you. May my
heart know and experience endurance through the strength of Your grace
and may it ever rest secure in the knowledge that You will forever wait
for me to finish.
Lord, I can only Imagine ..... Amen
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8EFYcG2Ym0
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