This was and still is risky business. It was not unusual for someone to fall into death along the race. But the risk was small compared to the chance to win. If victor, the honor was amazing. Shouts, visible tokens of reward, promotion of the winner and his family, applause, and appreciation were all his.
If victor, the effort was all worth it. If not . . .
Paul, a prominent Bible writer, uses these races to give us a symbol of the Christian way. There is a beginning, and there is a goal.
What is the goal to be reached? Eternal life! When we finish this race—and having completed the course by following Christ, being forgiven of Him, loving Him, being loved by Him, acknowledging Him, trusting Him, and changed by Him—we will be handed that gift of being able to live for eternity with Him in heavenly places with access to this universe that awes us all as we look into its mysteries.
The goal is Christ! We can actually partake of some of the benefits, even at the beginning of the race and all along its course. We can enjoy peace, joy, love, direction, rest of mind, tranquility of spirit along the way and then look forward to an eternity of only good things. Wow, that sounds good to me!
To run the race requires strength and stamina unbeknown to most. It is a course laid out by the Creator of all, and its finish is known only by Him. This race requires all, just like the training for Olympians. Concentrated desire and effort must rule the life, and every discipline should be enacted to do what it takes to win. Ah, but there is really good news in this race:
1. All who begin can reach the goal. Not just one will win the race.
2. You will actually have encouragement by the other runners. They are your friends, your help, your cheerleaders.
3. You will be given strength and power to actually run the race, by the Creator and Sustainer of all. He will give you supernatural strength and endurance to go through whatever is marked out on your course.
In this race it will be necessary to have fortitude, patience, endurance, self-denial, temperance, and courage to keep running. We cannot allow our attention to be distracted by amusement, entertainment, luxury, convenience, passion, or by others. We must be guided by God’s Word, led by His Spirit, and willing to put aside anything that would hinder us in this race. The life must be under constant discipline. The goal must be always kept in mind.
This race is not for the lazy, the complainer, the weak. The harder it seems, the more weary we are, the more effort must be required to complete it. We cannot give up in the race. In order to complete the race, we must voluntarily submit to hardship, privation, and self-denial. We must train to put appetite and passion under the control of reason and the will of God. We must choose constantly to do it all, as the Creator has stated.
The crowds around us may not be cheering us on. In fact, they will probably try to stop us from running. But run we must. In the earthly races, one received a crown or reward. In the heavenly race, we can all obtain an immortal reward.
“Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible” (1 Corinthians 9:24, 25).
Paul knew what it took to complete the race. He writes, “I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air; but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway” (Verses 26, 27).
Paul wrote much about caring for the physical body as the house for the spiritual temple of Jesus.
“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are” (1 Corinthians 3:16, 17).
“What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (1 Corinthians 6:19, 20).
“For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it” (Ephesians 5:29).
Paul knew the importance of how to run and how far to run. He reached the goal. What about you and me?
In the previous issue of the Youth Messenger, I mentioned already that at the age of 20, I began a new life, a different kind of race. I didn’t think of it as a race then. That conclusion has only come more recently.
I was EXCITED about this new life! There was a peace and a joy that I had never felt before. The regrets and guilt of past actions and attitudes were forgiven. I knew that in my innermost being. Like athletes beginning their run—I felt a burst of power, something like a long-term adrenaline rush.
I expected then and for many, many years, that if others knew that they could run the same race and reach the same goal, that they would be thrilled to run, too. Why wouldn’t anyone want to find peace and joy consistently, continually, and then find eternal life? Maybe I was naive, but I really thought that this was going to be fairly easy and that all would want to follow along, especially those that were close to my heart. But I was destined to be disappointed, sorely disappointed.
As I began to read and study the “rules of the race,” I found them so solid in meaning, so right in what they produced in attitudes and actions, that I was more than willing to do whatever God asked through His instruction manual—the Bible. I knew by experience then, and know by study now, that the Lord promises to give His strength and help to any who will choose to do His will and way.
—P. J. Stemmler writes from Ontario, Canada.