Go: Jesus Knows You Can!
“3…2…1…GO!” As the gun sounded I watched the runners pound furiously down the track. The racers pushed their bodies to the limit. Every second was the difference between a win or a loss. One lap, two laps, three laps. On the fourth and final lap the runners were visibly tiring. This was the final push. Nine runners in all, seven in front and two trailing behind. As I watched intently, one runner slowly fell further and further behind, obviously discouraged by the distance between himself and first place.
I wondered what was going through his mind then. Maybe he was thinking, “Oh, I can’t win this. I might as well give up” or “I’m so tired; I’ve run this far already. People will understand.” Or maybe he was thinking “I’m not good enough for this. Those guys are so much more in shape then I am.” Whatever he thought, that man gave up and walked off the track. Now as this man walked off, my attention focused on the runner now in last place. He didn’t give up. Instead, something pushed him to a new level. He started gaining on sixth, then fifth, and so on until he was right behind the first place runner.
As they rounded the last corner and headed straight for the finish line, he put everything he had into one more push. The crowd grew silent and all you could hear was the stamp of the runners’ feet. Every noise faded until a few moments later, when their cheers and applause shook the very bleachers where I stood. As I gazed in amazement, I saw that the man who was in last place — who everyone thought would lose — actually won the race!
Once the crowd stopped thronging this man, I walked up to him and asked “How in the world did you finish first? You were all the way in the back, yet somehow you made it to first!” The man looked at me wearily, yet with a spark of excitement in his eye, and said “I looked at it this way: I was in last place, what did I have to lose? I wanted to push myself to my limits. No matter what, I was going to finish this race with my head held high! My coach trained me for exactly this purpose.”
What is different about these two men’s mindsets? One thought that he wasn’t good enough to finish and one wanted do his best just like his coach had told him. We can be like either one of these men. I’ve certainly been ready to throw in the towel at times, but through God’s grace and mercy I’ve learned to push myself to go as far as possible because I want to please my King. I want to please the coach who gave me that assignment.
Philippians 4:13 tells us “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Jesus will always give us strength to finish our race. We must not live our lives with the mindset that we will fail or that we are not good enough. We need to keep our eyes focused on the prize which is our Lord and King, and along the way remember the training Jesus has put us through to get to the end. God would not have made you or I if he thought we would fail. He made us and trained us because he knows that we can make it and no situation or trial can hinder us from finishing! Don’t give up, and don’t lose hope! Set your eyes, open your heart, and give it all you’ve got! You can and will finish — I know it, and above all Jesus does, too!
Well said. The important thing is to do what our coach trained us to do. We shouldn’t be wondering whether we can finish the race — He already knows that.
I know what its like to be in last, and its hard to keep moving. But it becomes alot easier if I can focus on the prize at the end–Jesus. And not the other runners.
You made the two mindsets very obvious and also helped us to see which mindset is better. As Christians, we have and advantage, because we have someone to help us. Couple that with the right mindset and we have the best of both worlds.