Running with Perseverance

Are you facing a world of difficulty and challenges?   

The author of Hebrews has much to say about perseverance.

BEJING, AD 2008-- The crowd in the stadium are on their feet.  Their cheers rising to a massive crescendo.  An elite team of finely tuned athletes are on the track. The final runner, set to take the handoff and dash to the finish line, reaches back.  And then a nightmare ... the baton is dropped, skidding away from the runners.  Passing out of the exchange zone the team is disqualified.  It’s a scene viewed by millions across the globe.  The collective gasp of the crowd steals the air.  Another race run, but not well, the race not completed, the medal lost. 

Team USA's 4x100 relay teams, both women and men, had failed after dropping their batons.  In fact it was the fifth time in the previous 12 world championships the star-studded Team USA had failed to finish the 4x100 relay.

ROMAN EMPIRE, AD 63 -- The author of Hebrews describes a similar spectacle.  (Hebrews 11:1-12:3) A great crowd looks on.  Distinguished celebrities are scattered throughout the crowd.  Abraham, Isaac and Jacob sitting with Joseph and Moses.  Rahab peering through the binoculars.  Gideon, Barak, Samson are waving the team’s banner ... a red cross on a blue field.  David and Samuel shout their encouragement.  Thousands of former runners, decorated for their faithfulness fill the stadium.  Each one applauding the runners and you are on the track.

The warning in Hebrews 12:1 is to “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and ... run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”  It matters how we run.  It matters how we finish.  

MINNESOTA, AD 1980 -- When I was in high school, I ran track for two seasons.  It wasn’t my favorite sport, but it helped me get in shape for soccer.  The pre-season conditioning was difficult.  First running miles, then sprints, then miles mixed with sprints, then sprints mixed with miles, then just sprints and sprints and sprints.  I was neither a great distance runner, nor a spectacular sprinter.  However, I did run faster than most and so I was selected for the 4x400 relay team.  

Not having run in junior high, the coach took me aside the first week of the season and gave me some valuable coaching.  First he told me to run with my eyes fixed on the finish line, not the other runners, nor any other distraction in the stadium.  Second, he told me to run within my lane at all times to avoid infractions and disqualification.  Third, he told me to learn how to pace myself for the entire leg of my race.  Not to go out too fast and burn out, nor to wait until too late to try to catch up.  It was a lesson easier heard than implemented.  

For my first race I was selected to run the third leg.  Each of my teammates had successfully made their hand off and I was now running my grueling 400 meters.  Everything went perfectly for the first 200 meters.  In fact I had made up ground on the teams in front of me and had come even with the leading team.  I felt exuberant.  I was making an impact.  I was running well.

And then came the 300 meter mark.  All of a sudden, I had no breath.  My legs began to tighten up and I felt fairly sure that I was going to die.  Then I felt a tear in my right quadricep.  I could hear the crowd in the stands.  I could hear their gasps as I pulled up lame and had to struggle to finish my leg and make my handoff.  I then sat down right on the track.  We finished near the back of the pack.  It was the end of my track season.  The lesson -  stretch more, lots of stretching!

MAUI, HAWAII, AD 2010 -- Running the Christian race is very similar.  There is pre-season conditioning, preparing our minds and hearts for the event.  There’s the crowd of witnesses, each one a former runner themselves.  There’s the rules, run fairly, run well.  There’s the finish line and the prize.   

As I think back over these many years, I can still see in my mind exactly where I sat down on that track in pain and agony.  I can easily relate that experience to the race I’m running today.  Sometimes miles.  Months and years of struggle where persistence and patience are critical.  And there are the sprints.  Short bursts of intense energy in prayer and spiritual battle.  The crowd is there too.  Watching, cheering, awaiting the outcome.  And there at the finish line, waits Jesus.  He’s won the race.  He’s endured the pain.  He is the prize.  So run.  Run within the rules.  Run without entanglement.  Run with perseverance.  Run.