The Race

The Race


I was driving to church one morning and I started to think of all the reasons why anyone would give up on life and check out. Life, as we all know, is hard. It knocks us down a few times. It makes us cry, it can anger us. It's rarely ever fair. Now living a Christ-like life can be even harder. We are held up to higher standards...Jesus' standards. He was perfect, how much harder could it get? When the unimaginable happens to us, we're suppose to act different than a non Christian. When it seems like one problem after another, we are supposed to keep going. It's hard! Imagine running a race: Not just any race, but the hurdles. Such is life, hurdle after hurdle. Sometimes we jump over them with no problem, and other times we trip and fall. But we are to always get up. God is always with us during our race. He's like that proud parent in the stands, cheering us on, saying "Get up My son!"... "Get up My daughter!"..."I know you can do it, don't give up!" Sometimes, we stay on the ground after a fall. It can take us a long time to get up again. It could be out of fear of falling again, complacency, exhaustion.


Now imagine this:


Jesus...at the mock trial before his death. He's carrying a heavy, splintery, wooden cross up a hill on a hot day. He falls from exhaustion or from a push in the crowd. He gets up and keeps going. People are mocking him, calling him names. People are pulling His hair and spitting on Him. He is being whipped continuously on his back as if he were a horse. He has blood rolling down his face because of the sharp crown of thorns pressed on his head....not to mention the salty sweat rolling over his open wounds. Yet, He keeps going. Jesus could have saved himself from that torture. He could have given up. He could have shown the crowd that He truly was the Son of God without all that torture. He didn't. He kept walking until he got to the top of the hill. Finally laying for a brief moment on top of the cross, not to rest but to be nailed to it. Every mistake we ever made, every bad decision, every sin...every wrong against someone, every hurt and pain was nailed to that old wooden cross. All for love.



Now ask yourself, is life really that bad that I should give up? I can say the cliché thing, "Someone else has it worse than you." As cliché as it may sound, it's true. Examine your life. What do you have to live for? Who is in your life? Is i your kids? Husband, wife, sister, grandparents? You get the picture. There are people who need you, no matter how horrible your life may seem at the moment. Be strong. Be optimistic. Smile when you don't feel like it. It will eventually come naturally.



I know this lady who's going through something that I could not even imagine going through. It is truly a matter of life or death...not for her but for one of her own. Yet, she is optimistic, positive. I'm sure she has her days where she breaks down, and that's okay. But I just don't get those frequent complainers who will cry about a bad day at work, or kids that just can't behave. Be thankful you have a job, be thankful your kids are healthy. Just be THANKFUL!



I promise you, it's not as bad as you make it!