Oftentimes, life has been described as a race and a challenging one at that.
Some writers see life as a journey where you must learn at each and every step. Some see life as a marathon that needs lots of practice and patience but where everything is possible in life if we persevere.
Therefore, in order to have a successful race in a challenging context such as life one must know how to stay the course.
To stay the course is to continue in a race with an effort in-spite of difficult conditions knowing we will succeed in the end if we don’t give up.
One good example of a man who ran a successful race of life against all odds is Apostle Paul and he offers some hints to running a race from start to finish.
To Paul life was both a race and a fight, life was not an entertainment nor was life given merely to pursue happiness but to serve and honor God.
Paul had a purpose, and he ran the race of life like a practiced runner and like a determined boxer with an eye for victory:
In 1 Cor. 9:26 Paul says: “ Therefore I run in such a way as not to run aimlessly; I box in such a way, as to avoid hitting air”
In 2nd Tim. 4:7 the same Paul says:
“ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith”.
Many of us run the race of life like we have all the time to waste and many see life as one big bubble where the ultimate goal of life is to be happy and therefore always seeking whatever will make us happy at all cost.
God is the author of life and He gave each one of us a chance at life to pursue a divine purpose and at the end to come out of life as good stewards. Life is therefore about purpose and about stewardship and this could not be defined better than in the parable of the talent.
In the parable of the talent in Matthew 25, Jesus says: “You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.”
From this parable we can see the core issues of purpose and stewardship and we can deduce that life has a purpose and every challenge is meant to make you a better person.
From the parable we also see that for our potentials to glorify God we must be ready to work hard to put them into good use. This is the value of being good stewards and managers of our God given resources and the most important of these resources being time.
For us to make diligent use of our time in this race of life we must have a purpose. Jesus plainly declared his purpose saying “ “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work”. ( John 4:34).
What is your own purpose in life?
Jesus and Paul’s life has taught us that a life of purpose is not a life given to entertainment but a life that seeks to deliberately conquer challenges by enduring discouraging circumstances to be victorious.
Jesus at the end of his ministry demonstrated the fact that life was ultimately about stewardship. While rendering his account to His Father he said: “While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition…..” (John 17:12).
What is life to you ? A race or a dance ?
Today you must decide to run your life’s race with a deliberate purpose as you do away with everything that does not glorify God which hinders you from running a good race: the greatest of these hinderances are sin, fear and laziness.
You must decide today to wake up from your slumber and begin to run a lifetime race that glorifies God.
