There is a very popular television show in the USA called The Amazing Race. I’ve even seen other regional versions of this show during my extensive travels around the world. In this television series, teams comprised of two people race against each other, all in hopes of wining a significant prize. In the case of the USA show, the prize is $1 million.
There are also major athletic races around the world. Recently, during a sleepless night, I turned on my television to one of the sports channels to watch the Tour de France. A few hundred men were bicycling all across France in hopes of earning the daily privilege of wearing the yellow jersey that indicates that they are in the lead. They are all fighting for the same prize, a cash award set aside for each year’s winner.
For those of us who call ourselves Christ followers, when we consider our purpose in this world, it would serve us well to think in terms of a race. Paul himself used this analogy in some of his writings. We can find one such analogy in Paul’s first letter to the Church in Corinth. In chapter 9 of this letter, in verses 24 through 27, we find Paul’s description as follows in the New Living Translation:
Don’t you realize that in a race, everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win! All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So, I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others I myself might be disqualified.
Paul understood the importance and urgency of the task to evangelize the world. Paraphrasing from his letter to the Church in Ephesus: The race we are in is a race to fearlessly proclaim the gospel to everyone, everywhere, every time we can (Eph 6:19).
Our race is not one that generates a large cash payout or the privilege to wear a yellow jersey. Money and jerseys are someday going to return to dust and to ash. They are going to fade away. As Paul noted, our race is one that generates eternal rewards; however, our race is not one for the lazy. Like the physical conditioning an athlete must endure, in order to fearlessly proclaim the gospel effectively, we likewise must condition ourselves.
Yes, our conditioning requires that we be physically able to proclaim the gospel, but it carries an even greater requirement. The race we are in requires us to be in top spiritual condition. Just as the athlete will be up early each day and running his neighborhood, bicycling his city, or swimming for hours, a ready contestant in the eternal race must get up early, running through the scriptures, cycling his way through prayer, and swimming with the Holy Spirit into a fresh anointing for the task of the day.
The writer to the Jewish believers in the book of Hebrews captures the requirements for this race very well. I love the way The Message Bible, an English paraphrase of the scripture, presents this story from Hebrews 12:1–3:
Do you see what this means — all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running — and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins.
Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed — that exhilarating finish in and with God — he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God.
When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls!
Did you catch that? “Strip down, start running — and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins.”
“Strip down.” We have to stop filling our days full of junk that prevents us from having the time or energy to get into the race – turn off the television, close down the computer, put a way that novel, unload all of that stuff and start running.
“No extra spiritual fat.” In other words, stop talking about all the great things you are going to do for the Lord and actually get in there and do it. You’ve heard the expression, “He is so spiritually minded that he is of no earthly good.” Some people want to wait in the Word and wait in prayer until the Lord comes and personally takes them by the hand and kicks them in the seat and says start running. That is extra spiritual fat and we need to get rid if it.
We do need to condition ourselves, but then we need to simply “start running.” George Jenkins, the founder of one of the largest super markets in the USA was often quoted as saying “Begin, the rest is easy.” The writer of Hebrews is essentially saying the same thing, “start running – and never quit!” What good does it do us to start the race, then as soon as it gets difficult, to quit?
Think about those men riding in the Tour de France this year. It’s the last day of their competitive stages. They have been pushing their bodies harder than ever day after day through each stage of the race. Then, at the time when they are beaten down to their greatest point of weakness, they are required to top one of the highest and most difficult ascents of the race. Do they quit? No! Each rider presses on. Even if they know they will not be among the top three who get the major prizes, they still press on. That’s what the writer is saying to us, we need to “start running – and never quit!”
Finally, “No parasitic sins.” Sin is a killer. It is the one tool that Satan has over us that can totally disqualify us in this race. In the television show, when teams violate the rules, they have to sit on the sidelines and watch as the other teams come to the finish line for that day’s task. In many road races, a violation means that time is tacked on to your finishing time, essentially moving you further back from the prize. Sin is a violation in our race to proclaim the gospel. It can be as severe as doping is to an athletic race. When we try to run the race and still engage in sin that breaks God’s heart, He removes His protection and the enemy of our task is able to inflict penalty after penalty. In the end, even with the best spiritual conditioning, sin will cause us to fall behind in the race. And, like the athlete caught doping to get an advantage in his physical race, sin can totally disqualify us from participating in this spiritual race.
Are you a Christ Follower? If so, then you are called to be in this race. We see in Acts chapter 1 as well as in Matthew chapter 28, that all those who follow Him are called to be His witness, to go and make disciples. Christ Himself set the example as shown in John 9:4 where He said, “As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me.” Why the urgency? He even provided that answer, because “Night is coming, when no one can work.”
Billions of people around the world still have not been told about Jesus. The time for proclaiming the gospel is very short. It’s our task to condition ourselves quickly and to get into the race. A race to fearlessly proclaim the gospel to a world that does not know Jesus. A race we run not for some cash reward or earthly prize, but for an eternal prize whose value is greater than anything we could get in this world.
The race is ours to win or lose. Are you in the race?
Wayne Brown is an Assemblies of God pastor and missionary, currently residing in the USA. His ministry is called The Vital Message. For more information, visit the ministry website at http://TheVitalMessage.org.
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