Run Your Race

I used to be a runner.  In high school I took up track and became a lean mean running machine.  It was a skill that didn't come as easy I thought it would.  It took a lot of practice, dedication, and hard work to develop to the point that I was able to compete.  Eventually, I  was ready to compete and my coach thought that mid-distance would be my best area to excel.

I became an 800 runner.  That is half a mile, which translates to two times around the track.  It was the sprint from hell!  It was short enough that a slow pace would earn you last place and long enough to where your sprint after 600 meters would set your muscles into spasm and send your lungs on vacation.  This was the race where my team mates and I would cross the finish line in extreme exhaustion, collapse, roll over to the grass, them throw up.  The vomit was the sign that you ran your best race.  In that, we felt satisfaction.

I remember this one time my first year running, but towards the end of the season, I began the race in total confidence that I would run my personal best.  I was ready and at the shot of the gun I took off.  There was a girl from the other team that went out at a tremendous pace but in the back of my mind I was like "Oh no you didn't!!"  I went after her.  Chasing her down like a bull motivated to capture the red cape of the matador.  But she was so fast.  I became angry at this girl for being so good.  I kept running, thinking to my self I'm about to run a minute 400.  As we are coming around the third bend of the track,  I hear my coach yelling "slow down, slow down, she's a decoy."   I didn't know what that meant so I followed her stride for stride.  Imagine my surprise when we crossed the first 400 she stopped.  "What is going on!??, You can't stop in the middle of a race!"  I screamed at her in my mind as my legs kept spinning.  I was now in first place and I had to keep going.  I forged ahead holding the lead until the last one hundred.  I was past by the first, then by the second runner from the other team.

I came in third.  I did run my personal best that day and I remember getting a faster time then the best 800 veteran runner on our team.  But I threw up extra hard that day, my body was in shock, my muscles collapsed, my lungs were on a plane to Tahiti.  I could not and would not run another race that day, I was too exhausted.

I later learned that I was drawn out by a decoy.  It was planned from the beginning, that a runner from the other team would run half of the race as fast as she could so that her teammates could tire our team out in the beginning.  It was a deceitful tactic but it was a strategy to win the race.  I was hard headed. I didn't listen to my coach and I kept running, determined that I was going to run my personal best.  I learned after the race, that the coach always has more experience than the first year rookie.

Moral of the story, listen to your coach and pace yourself.  Learn patience.  Learn how the other team operates.  Stay awake and vigilant so that you don't fall for these simple tricks.  This is how it is in the Kingdom.  The World Kingdom will set up many decoys, and if you are not wise you will chase after them.  You will tire yourself out and not be able to run any of the other important races for your team.  The whole point is for your team (The Heavenly Kingdom) to get the points to win the whole meet.  We will not win with everyone running their own race, trying to be the star.  That strategy is just going to make you sick and exhausted.  Run your own race, but listen to your coach (Jesus).  He will not steer you wrong.

Friends, I pray that we understand who we are as a people.  I pray that you understand that you are on a team and we need everyone to be active participants.  You have a race to run, in the event that God will prepare you for.  We make mistakes as beginners and that is understandable.  Let us run this race with patience and set aside the sin that can easily exhausts us.  We don't have to be the stars of the show, but we will be the winners.

Your motivation for Monday:

Run your race.

and be obedient to your coach

We are the Champions!

Tamorra