First I want to say that the winner of the Bible giveaway was Valerie Dyck from Ontario. Thank you Valerie and thank you everyone for all the love and support that you’ve shown as I continue on my writing journey. It means a lot!
Let’s Race
Are you a very competitive person? Some people just like to win. They like to be the first in line, they like to have the feeling of achieving something, to know they did it. To know their hard work paid off. Some only have a few races they’re running, others have tons of races they’re running. But it doesn’t matter how many you have, what matters is how you run the race.
Paul also talks about racing. He says, “Run in such a way as to get the prize.” (1 Corinthians 9:24) Do you think he meant a competition of some sort? I think it could be applied to a competition. But I think he meant something greater than that. Life is a race. You work hard just to keep up with your neighbor, you work late hours trying to catch up with the rest of the world. To get your business going, to possibly, finally get somewhere in life, but no matter how fast you run, your legs stay at the same place. This is where you ask yourself, what am I racing for? What I am trying to win? Then once you’ve set your goals, you work around achieving that goal. You take classes, you fly to different countries, you work two jobs, you do everything that’s required to reach that particular goal. You work in such a way to reach that goal; you race in such a way to win the prize. You do your best training for the race.
Paul goes on to say, “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.” So obviously, Paul is talking about the crown that will last forever. He’s talking about the prize that comes at the end of all prizes, the prize at the end of our life. And he says, “Run in such a way as to get the prize.” Live in such a way as to enter the gates of heaven and receive our crown. So Why do we turn the other cheek? Why do we give our enemy the clothes off our back? Why do we smile at the ones who hate us? Why do we offer our help when we’d rather just sleep? Why do we say no to the wrong friends and spend the night by ourselves instead? Why do we say yes to work when we’d rather want to sit on the couch the whole day? Because we are running in such a way to win the race.
Training takes hard work, but mostly discipline. We have to discipline ourselves to keep training, to stay strong, to keep a cheerful attitude. And so we have to discipline ourselves to stay on the road that leads toward Heaven. We won’t get where we’re going without learning and trying everyday to get there. It is so easy to give up. To give up on anything. On our personal goals, on our career goals, on our academic goals, on our life goals, because in reality, sitting and watching the world go by is so much easier. Not worrying about goals or dreams or even projects, is so much easier. Living the everyday life and just living in that day is the easiest thing to do. But living everyday like it might be your last is not so easy. It requires vision. An eye to see where you’re going and living every day, like today you might reach your goal. Like today your big break might come, like today you might reach your life goal: you might see Jesus. And you want to be ready when that day comes. It takes vision to create goals and it takes discipline to see them through.
Even though we should work to achieve our earthly goals, we don’t need to work so hard on them to put aside our family and God. Our Life goal should always comes first, reaching Heaven. Our families shouldn’t be forgotten, ourselves should be taken care of and our earthly goals should be a work in progress. It is up to us to run our races as to get the prize. To live life to our absolute fullest.
I hope this has inspired you in some way. I hope you live your life to the fullest, I hope you run your race to win the prize and I hope you never let anyone kill your will to win.
Until next time, Maria