We just did a short 15-minutes-up, 15-minutes-back
walk, but on the way up we met two older men jogging back. I don’t know whether
they were completing 6.4 miles, but it sure looked like it. Decked out in
running shorts and running shoes, they were drenched in sweat, steadily
grinding out the last few hundred yards of the course.
We saw the same two men last week, too. I don’t
know how old they are, but they had at least ten years on me, and they were
still cranking out the miles.
The Bible talks about life as a race: let us
run with endurance the race that is set before us. It’s one thing to make it to
the dam, the half-way mark. But we’re called to run all the way to the end, all
the way home.
The older I get, the more tempting it is to stop,
drop out, take it easy. Let the younger folks run. I’ll amble…shuffle...saunter.
Or sit. But I want to be like those two older guys. Still motoring, still cranking out the miles, still pursuing Christ as my number one ambition.
So my
question is, how do you keep going to the end. How do you finish well?
That’s exactly what Hebrews 12:1-2 is talking
about: Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a
cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so
closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking
to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right
hand of the throne of God.
I don’t think any of us will “run the race with endurance” unless we
learn to “look to Jesus.” Keeping our eyes on Christ seems like it would be the
most basic discipline for anyone who calls himself a follower of Christ. But it
turns out that a thousand and one other things distract us and all too often shut
out a vision of our Savior.
“Fixing your eyes on Jesus” literally means to “look away to Jesus.” It
gives the idea that maybe you’ve been distracted by other things, but finally you’ve
turned your eyes to focus only on Him.
For me, trying to
keep Christ in my thoughts and imagination, my decisions and dreams, my hopes
and my feelings, means a whole lot of different things. Actually this blog is one way
I try to do that.
But reading His word
and trying to “see” Him in the gospels is a big help. I try to look for His
presence in the Old Testament. I attempt to learn more about His character in
the epistles. Focusing on some key passages, to study and memorize is also a help: like John 1:1-18, Colossians 1:15-20, Hebrews 1:1-14, or Hebrews 4:14-16.
One other essential:
anyone who really wants to keep his or her eyes on Jesus ought to ask Jesus to
help them. It deserves to be a matter of prayer, if we
really hope to run our race with endurance.
Remember the old chorus Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus? I like Alan Jackson's version:
