A Race Well Run

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 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. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.” – 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (NIV)

Self-denial and self discipline, cornerstones of Christlike behavior, the exhibition of the death of our flesh-ridden selves resurrected into new beings, remade in the image of and by the grace of Christ. Scripture compares striving towards the Kingdom of Heaven to the running of a race. It requires endurance, perseverance, training, and as the Apostle Paul is stating, discipline.

Jesus said to His disciples, “if anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 16:24-26, NIV) 

This is not simply submission, though submission is required. This is an utter and complete surrender of all that we are, ever have been, and ever will be stretching into eternity. It is not an easy task, even if we are surrendering to an all-perfect, all-forgiving, all-gracious Savior.

Why is it so hard, this complete surrender? 

Because the flesh within us does not want to die. 

Our flesh will fight us every minute of every day, clawing itself out of the grave to which we banish it again and again, only to find out that it is with our own hands that we once again released it. 

It is a daily boxing match, an endurance race to be run until we finally and inevitably reach eternity. Every minute you have to decide, will you continue the fight?

So why do we keep fighting? Does God demand self-denial for self-denial’s own sake? Does He demand stoicism, a complete indifference to pleasure or pain?

No, He offers us rewards. 

As C.S. Lewis writes in his book, The Weight of Glory, “indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak.” 

Without a true understanding and remembrance of why we are running the race, we will soon find the suffering too difficult to bear, disqualifying ourselves from the race far before the finish line. We will simply lack the motivation. 

Why do women endure the pain of pregnancy and childbirth? Pregnancy symptoms include: months of nausea and vomiting, pokes and prods of doctors, pain when you are sleeping, pain when you are standing, weight gain, an unrecognizable body, maternal health risk (this is not an exhaustive list). All of this concludes in a torturous labor of unknown duration and agony. Yet many women choose to take on this suffering not just once, not just twice, but countless times. Why? Because we know the glorious reward coming at the end.

Are you weary of running the race towards the Kingdom of Heaven? Are you tired of the call God has placed upon your life? Are you burnt out of serving others…of loving people?

Remember the finish line before you, and the One who awaits you there. The One who has redeemed you by His grace, and by that same grace escorts you to His eternal home. Instead of a glittering medal, he will place upon your head an everlasting crown (1 Corinthians 9:25). You look down upon your weary body, ragged from a race faithfully run, only to find that you have been transformed…you look like Him, beautiful, flawless Him (2 Corinthians 3:18). 

He looks at you, the Creator of the Universe, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, to whom all of the angels and all of creation bow down. He looks you in the eyes and smiles with a piercing glorious joy and says to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share in my happiness!” (Matthew 25:23)

And for eternity, you do.