Maintaining Focus

A number of times in his writings, Paul referred to running a race. This would have made sense to the Greek mindset that was accustomed to athletic games which included running. Paul emphasizes how important it is to keep the goal or finish line in mind. Several years ago, I ran in the Helvetia Half Marathon in Hillsboro, Oregon—thirteen point one miles. My goal was to run the race at a pace a little faster than an eight-minute mile pace, or to finish the race in under an hour and forty-five minutes. Fortunately, the race had pacers who ran with helium-filled balloons attached to them so that you could see them. Since there were so many racers, I could not get up with the eight-minute mile pacer, so I began with the eight-and-a-half-minute mile pacer. I realized that, since I was starting after the eight-minute mile pacer, if I could catch her by the end of the race, then I would have accomplished my goal and would have run under one hour and forty-five minutes. At the seven-and-a-half-mile point, I reached the highest elevation of the race and could see far ahead. That was when I saw my goal, the balloons of the eight-minute mile pacer. For the rest of the race, I kept her in my sight, running to catch up to her. At twelve and a half miles, less than a mile from the finish line, I caught and passed her. As I did, she encouraged me to keep going and finish under an hour and forty-five. I did, finishing a bit under one hour and forty-four minutes.

On the other hand, several years after I ran that half marathon, I ran in a five-kilometer race—just three point one miles. My goal was to run it under twenty minutes. When I started, I had a glitch with my watch, so I didn’t have an accurate time of when I began. When I finished, I knew I was close to twenty minutes. When the results came, I finished at twenty minutes and two seconds. Two seconds over twenty minutes, I had missed my goal. If I had a clear idea of my goal as I got close to the finish line, I believe I could have cut two or three seconds off my time. As we run the race of life, we must keep Jesus firmly in our sight, because he is our goal; otherwise, we can become distracted and miss our goal. The purpose of our life is to become like him.

Jesus is the Treasure

In 1980, a movie came out called Little Lord Fauntleroy. It was about a little American boy, Cedric or Ceddie, and his aristocratic English grandfather, the Earl of Dorincourt. At the beginning of the movie, it was believed that Ceddie was the last surviving heir to his grandfather. He was brought from America to England and began to learn what it meant to be an Earl. Actually, it was Ceddie who taught his grandfather what it meant to be an Earl, but that is another story. At a certain point, there entered another boy whose mother claimed that he was Ceddie’s older cousin. This boy’s mother, who had been married to Ceddie’s uncle, claimed her son was the legitimate heir. When the grandfather told Ceddie that he was not to be the Earl, Ceddie was not saddened by the loss of the title, but was gripped with fear that he would no longer be his grandfather’s little boy. It was the relationship with his grandfather that little Ceddie treasured, not the title or the benefits of that title. My friends, knowing Jesus is our great treasure, much more so than the blessings he gives to us, the greatest of which is eternal life.