The Finish Line

I realized that I do my best when I have a goal.  I think we all do.  In fact, I think what keeps people strong when they are going through the hardest of times is when they think "Heaven is my goal".  Keeping our eyes on the prize is something I have heard my entire life but what is the prize?  As I sit here, in my "place", Starbucks, I have been thinking about goals and the ones I have made for myself.  I am actually researching how to go from an okay walker to a finisher of a half marathon in 193 days.  I am not certain how it is going to happen or how I am going to train for it but I already see myself crossing the finish line.  I have pictured it all as I have thought about it and I know it is a real place.  I am fully aware that other people have been there.  I have read about what it is like and I can feel it in my soul as I think about it.  The reality, I have never crossed the finish line of a half marathon.  I know that to get there, I am going to have to make a daily choice to think about it and to act as if I am going to cross that finish line.  I don't need to say I am a runner, I need to become one.  I will have to push myself to be more than I ever thought possible.  I am going to get blisters, bruises, and burns as I train, but I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I will cross that finish line on October 29, 2011.

What about my spiritual finish line?  What do I choose to do each day that causes me to focus on that finish line?  Do I think that I can live as a lazy Christian and feel like I have run the race that was set before me?  Will I train daily regardless of how I feel?  Will I act Christlike or will I be Christlike?

Funny, I have volunteered for many athletic events and I have watched as many people cross the finish line.  Many of them have a look of thankfulness, others have a look of exhaustion, and some have a look of surprise that they made it.  At these events I help, I watch, and I encourage, but I am not a participant.  I leave the events tired and with a t-shirt that says I was there.  I do not leave the event as a successful participant though.  People who see me wearing my t-shirts would assume that I participated.  I do not want my Christian life to be this way.  I don't want to look like a Christian and not participate in all that the Lord has for me to do here in the race of life.  I want to cross that glorious finish line with total thankfulness and even exhaustion but not surprise.  I want to hear "Well done Jamie!"  

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"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"

Hebrews 12:1

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