This morning, I had the great opportunity and privilege to serve some of my little current and former students alike at their GOTR (Girls on the Run) 5K race. After check-in and about an hour helping little girls get all pretty-fied with hair clips, hair colors, GOTR tattoos, and GOTR stickers, I walked to the finish line to wait for the first little runner to cross. About 25 minutes or so after the beginning alarm rang, the first little girl came racing down the finish line shoot. As she did, I experienced something I never had encountered before. Roars, chants, screams, and cheers rang joyously from a crowd of people who were perfect strangers to this girl. On her precious little face, you could see the weariness, the sweat, and the determination. As I stood there - simply amazed at the hype and the experience of it all - tears filled my eyes, and this verse's paraphrase popped into my mind:
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith." - Hebrews 12:1,2a (NIV)
At the sight of the tears in my eyes, I'm sure the people around me probably thought I was crazy. (Either that, or just a very emotional mother of one of the dear little runners. haha) Either way, today, I caught a glimpse of what Heaven must be like.
Roars, chants, screams, and cheers ringing joyously from crowds of people who may be perfect strangers to you, yet see the weariness, sweat, and determination on your face. They know your struggles because they've been there themselves. But they also know this: the trials and weights of this world matter not. What matters is that you ran the race marked out for you with perseverance. And that you finish it well.
Today, throw off the weights that hinder you (whatever they may be).
Fix your eyes on Jesus (no matter what that may cost you).
Keep on running (in whatever task(s) it is you do) with all your little heart.
And when the time of your "finishing line" moment approaches, may your "cloud of witnesses" say you finished well.
When I was younger, my siblings and I very quickly learned which errands to go on with my mom and which errands to run far away from. The one errand in particular I want to share with you this morning is when my mom would go up to the bank. Now, I don’t believe this bank is in business any longer; but back in the 90s, my mom would go to the drive-through teller at Barnett Bank. Whenever you went to the drive-up teller at Barnett Bank, they would give out lollipops to the kids in the car, which is probably while they’re no longer in business today because the Hill kids depleted them of their lollipops back in the 1990s. But seriously, mom would pack all of us in the car, she’d talk with the bank teller, she’d get her envelope full of money, and they’d ask how many kids were in the car… she’d say 5. They’d say “send back some of the money to cover the cost of all those lollipops, lady.” No just kidding. But on those bank errands, everything was fine. Things went surpri...
Mom has a T-sheet that said, " I feel like running". We like to joke about it because she never runs. As I sit here and think about it that is how many church members are (myself being on of them). We all go to church wearing their sunday go to meeting dress that say "i feel like running" but we never run the race. We just want to walk to the finish line and share in the excitement of the ones who did run.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, lets throw off the weights that hinder us and get in the race.