Sage Thoughts #92 Collapsing Past The Finish Line, Victorious

He had no chance of winning this. My son, Donnie, was twenty yards behind the first place runner, with very little race to go. Fifteen hundred yards is a long way to run, and Donnie just couldn’t catch up to the boy with long legged strides. First place was going on to District. Second place was going nowhere. I just happened to look out my classroom window at the right moment, or I would have missed his race completely. The track was right outside my classroom at Panama Elementary School, so we abruptly stopped whatever it was we were doing, and my second graders and I ran outside to cheer Donnie on. We chanted, “Go Donnie, Go! Go Donnie Go! Go Donnie Go!” It was as if nitrous oxide had been added to his tank. Donnie sprinted that last hundred yards, and as they reached the finish line, Donnie leaned out to touch the tape first. As long as I live, I will never see a better example of the power of encouragement. Sure, Donnie had done his work. He practiced with his soccer team nearly every day, so he was capable of winning the race, but only with that burst of encouragement, could he have ever gone to District.

Eric Little, the famous Scottish evangelist and Olympic runner, was once purposefully shoved off the track in the middle of a race. Faced with such an impossible task, most of us would have just brushed ourselves off, and looked to race another day. Not Eric. He pulled himself up out of the mud, gathered himself, and ran the rest of the race with all his might. After he had won the race, he collapsed on the track, exhausted, but victorious.

Many of us have been on this Christian path for a long time. We have been running the race, but now it’s time to sprint to the finish line. Recently, I started watching old episodes of “What’s My Line,” on Youtube. I shared here that I saw a man who was actually present when Abraham Lincoln was shot. Since then I have been watching all the old famous people, Sammy Davis Jr., Eleanor Roosevelt, Salvidor Dali, and many others. This innocent exercise of glimpsing history has come with a hefty price tag. While searching for these old treasures, other , not so innocent sites have popped up on the sidebar. I didn’t want to give up Youtube, because I really enjoy seeing these historical events. But the other day, for the first time, I had the desire to click on one of those sidebars. I thought I was invincible. I was wrong. I felt like Eric Little. I was being shoved off the track.

Well, good bye Youtube. I’ll not be searching that site again. One of my good friends, who loves hiking, said recently,” When I struggle with sin, I feel as if I’m slipping off the trail, and then God reaches out and grabs hold of me, and pulls me right back up.” That’s how it should work, if the Holy Spirit is involved in our lives. What is it that you do, that if Jesus was sitting with you, you’d never dream of doing? God sees everything. Countless scriptures tell us that. Whatever keeps you from a closer walk with Christ is not worth doing. The Devil is real. He never rests. His time is short. Let’s start today, live our lives as if Jesus was watching every moment, because He is.

Hebrews 12:1-2 “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. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

Let’s finish the race with all our might, collapsing past the finish line, exhausted, but victorious.