Run Your Race!

Ecclesiastes 9:11 “I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.”

I really don’t know much about being a runner, with the exception of what I was taught in school. My legs were always long so everyone always assumed I was an athlete. And although I had the physique of one, I was not that athletic. As a matter of fact, I was actually pretty slow, gangly and a lot of goofy. I remember when I was in the seventh (7th) grade the track coach asked me to run track. We had some really talented ninth (9th) graders, but I think his thought process was to develop some younger runners so that be developed for later. Our first track meet was early in the season, most of our development had only been spent on conditioning. My track coach scheduled me to run a race, I can’t remember which one but I believe I was supposed to run, one time around the track. I remember being nervous, and thinking that my end goal was just to get there, before everyone else. The signal was given to start, and I took off. I took off fast, I could tell I was ahead of everyone else. I was excited. In my head, I said, “I am going to win this! About three quarters (3/4) around the track, I began to slow down, or as they say in track, the “monkey” began to jump my back and everyone that was behind me began to shoot past me and I wound up finishing last. That was my last year running track, it wasn’t because I wasn’t successful in it, It just didn’t have my interest.

This morning I was reflecting on this moment. I was thinking, “I failed at that.” God showed me how to learn from that moment. 1) I took off to fast because I didn’t have the wisdom I needed to run the race, I hadn’t been trained correctly. If I had my approach to the situation would have been differently, I would have not started out so fast I would have paced myself. Godly wisdom is the best wisdom and if we ask God to give it to us, he will liberally supply it, we just have to ask and believe that we will receive it (James 1:5). 2) He said, you were comparing yourselves to others, before you started the race. Never compare yourselves to others. You don’t know how long they have been training or anything else about their process. Stay focused on you (2 Corinthians 10:12). 3) Stay teachable and don’t exalt yourself, you thought because the coach asked you to run that you were something special, you began to exalt yourself and think of yourself higher than others. There is nothing wrong with wanting to win, but it should always be done from a place of humility. The goal is to compete for Christ and not for ourselves (Proverbs 25:6). God will give us the key to success, to run this race, to walk out our purpose we just need to be trained properly so that we won’t make rookie mistakes. Proverbs 4:7 says “The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom. Though it cost all you have, get understanding.”

Prayer: Father we are so blessed by your purpose for our lives. Thank you for the plan that you have for us. Thank you for liberally supplying us with wisdom, all we have to do is as? So we ask you for wisdom, knowledge and understanding. Thank you for blessing us for your glory alone, In Jesus Name. Amen