SPRINTING TO THE FINISH LINE

Philippians 3:10-14

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

                I was a distance runner in high school. I ran the two mile race, which at that time was the longest race at a high school track meet. The two mile race was eight times around the track. It was a taxing race. No one had instructed me about the way to pace a race, so I would start out fast, slow in the middle and fade at the end. Yet, every time I finished a race, I felt like I still had something left in the tank, so to speak. I was always disappointed in myself that I had not given my all.

                Since I have gotten back into running, I have been conscious of pacing myself and not leaving too much in the tank at the end. With each of the five half-marathons that I have run, I have sprinted the last stretch to the finish line. It actually felt good to give everything I had left to cross the line at full speed.

                I think that is the way the Apostle Paul must have felt. Paul had faithfully run the race of faith. He had endured many hardships along the way. It would have been easy for him to coast to the end. But he did not! Right up to the end of his race, he kept his eye on the goal. He wanted to expend all of the energy he had to win the prize. When the time came, he sprinted across the finish line.

                No distance race is won in the last hundred yards. It is won by running consistently, mile by mile. The Christian life is the ultimate long distance race. It is demanding and exhilarating at the same time. It takes determination and stamina. If we are going to be able to sprint to the finish, like Paul, there are a few things we need to keep in mind.

                We need to constantly remind ourselves why we are running the race. Paul’s highest goal was to know Christ. That should be our highest goal as well. We do not run this race to look good to others or to fulfill some religious obligation. We run this race to draw closer to Christ.

                There are two ways we can understand the word know. In one way, to know is to accumulate knowledge about. It is based on facts, information, observations. I can know another person pretty well and still remain at a distance from the person. For example, I know a lot about Abraham Lincoln, but I will never be close to him. The other way we can understand know is to be intimately connected with another person. To know a person in this sense is to be in a close, personal relationship with them. It goes beyond knowing facts about the person to really knowing the person. That is the essence of what Paul was saying. It is the reason we run the race. We want to know Christ intimately and to be known by Christ intimately.

                We also need to remember that the race is not over until we cross the finish line. Even though Paul wrote to the Philippians near the end of his life, he recognized that he still had much ground to cover. He had spent many years getting to know Christ, yet he felt that he had not yet come to the end of what he needed to discover.

                As we run the race of faith, we need to strive to go deeper and deeper with Christ. We do not want to settle for a superficial relationship. Instead, we want to explore the heights and breadth of Christ’s love for us. We want to know more about His character, as we strive to be like Him. We want to live lives worthy of our relationship with Jesus.

                Lastly, we want to give our best, right up to the end of the race. The image Paul gives us is of an athlete exerting every ounce of energy to win the prize. Paul was not talking about winning his salvation. He was determined to give his best all the way to the end of his life.

                Too often, we Christians get to a place in our life where we just coast in our faith. Maybe we were sprinters early in our race, but we have lost our drive. We focus more on what we did in the past than want God wants to do through us in the present. Paul challenges us to keep up the pace, no matter where we are in the race.

                My parents were always active in our home church. My father was the church chairman for 50 years. He faithfully led worship every Sunday. He, along with several other men, led our Christian Service Brigade program. My mom sang in the choir, helped organize church dinners, and assisted with Pioneer Girls. When they retired, it would have been natural for them to slow down. They didn’t.  They began volunteering with the Josh McDowell ministry, now called GAIN. Twice a year they would travel from Ohio to Pennsylvania to work in the warehouse organizing supplies for the ministry. Once a year they would travel to Belarus to help distribute Operation Christmas Child boxes and other supplies to schools and orphanages. They did this well into their 80’s. They continue to press on toward the goal.

                When I cross the finish line, I don’t want to look back and regret that I left too much in the tank. I want to cross the line at a sprint. How about you?