Finishing the Race

Yesterday the NYC marathon claimed another victim. 58-year-old Sao Paulo resident Carlos Jose Gomes had just passed the finish line Sunday afternoon when he complained about feeling ill. They say he was taken by ambulance to a Manhattan hospital, where he died shortly after. Now, don't get me wrong, this is a tragic event, but I see in it a picture of how we should run the Christian race.

The race for the Christian is a marathon and not a sprint. In a marathon there is pain that must be endured in order to complete the race. We are going to have times in our Christian life that are painful. Do we quit, or do we press on? Only if we press on do we finish the race. Paul states in Philippians 3:12-14, "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."

How about you? Are you pressing on or dropping out? Remember, it is not how we begin, but how we finish that matters...finish strong!