Run the Race

We often joke about the fact that I may have been adopted.  My momma would cut grass and watch a football game any day of the week while I could search for hours on Pinterest for the perfect outfit combination and will watch Hallmark movies to the death.  Sports have just never been my thing.  But if there is one thing I recall being good at when I was younger, it was running.

At recess, we would set up races on the playground, and I could smoke every boy in my grade.  We would line up on the imaginary start line, and I remember looking over just once at the runner next to me, and then listening to the call– ready, set, GO!  And then my eyes became fixed on one thing.  The finish line.  I never looked away, I never changed my focus, I never became distracted.  And when it came to fourth grade recess races, I was a champ.

Side note.  Please do not ask me to run a race with you today as I feel I may not be as successful or speedy as my nine year old self.  But fourth grade?  Those were the glory days…

It’s the dawn of the new year. For many of us, it feels like a Monday. We have galloped off into the freezing cold with fresh goals and ideas about where we want 2018 to take us. There is a clarity in our vision, a determination in our steps. But, eventually, it will fade…

Things will get pushed to the back burner. Life will become busy. We will begin to wonder how we can manage all.of.the.things. How did I end up in this rat race? How can I juggle all that I’ve put on my plate?

So when that comes (it will…), here is some helpful wisdom. There are exactly enough hours in the day to do what God has called you to do. If you are feeling overwhelmed, take inventory. Trim the fat. Pray. Examine what His good, perfect, and pleasing will is for your life. Then run the race. Run hard, run fast, but run in such a way as to win the prize. We don’t win the prize by busying ourselves with good things we have accumulated by living a yes to everyone life. We win the prize by busying ourselves with the best things given to us by living a YES GOD life.

May 2018 be our new beginning. Our best year yet. Run your race. Win the prize.