Finishing Strong

My son, in the early days of his middle school cross country running, would come up to me after a race and ask “Do you think I saved too much?” He was a good runner then, not a great one yet, and he had what some coaches would call a good “kick”, that is, the ability to pour on the speed at the end of the race when other runners would be dying out. He had seen runners go out fast, leading the pack at the beginning of the race, only to fade long before the finish. Determined not to be one of them, he came up with his own strategy. It made for an exciting last 100 meters, but it did not necessarily make for a good overall finish. He realized that saving himself so he could pass lots of runners at the end of a race was fun, but no guarantee of a finish that would please the coach and contribute to the team. “Do you think I saved too much? Yeah, I think I saved too much...”

Most of us are in a constant struggle to know how to expend our energies wisely. On our own, it's a tricky balance to figure out. In many areas of our lives - relationships, work projects, domestic tasks, church ministries – we start out strong, only to lose steam and finish poorly, half-heartedly, or not at all. Other times we start slowly, perhaps dragging our feet, but slowly gain momentum and finish our project, only to look back on it and see all the ways we could have done it differently, improved upon it, used our time and resources better. We “saved too much”...

I recently read an article* that bemoaned the fact that runners in the 25-34 age demographic are more content to just finish races, marathons specifically, than they are to finish races competitively. The generation that has grown up receiving trophies for participation in childhood sports, but not necessarily for excellence, has grown into a generation that is content to not expend much more energy than necessary to finish. “Saving too much” has become their racing strategy...

In the book of Hebrews, we are called to a life race strategy that encourages a strong finish:

“...throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith...so that you will not grow weary and lost heart.” **

In 1 Corinthians, Paul uses racing language to focus us on what we are running for:

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”***

And so we are called to run with our lives a good race with a strong finish for a prize worth having. Our life running styles are all different, and our life races most likely are run on different routes and courses, but we share a common ultimate goal and a need for “strict training”. We also need to humbly realize we do not run this race alone. If we are to fix our eyes on Jesus, then we acknowledge that he is always present in our race, always available to coach us, to save us from burning out early or saving too much.

By his senior year in high school, my son had trained hard and had developed a successful racing strategy, good enough for a fourth place finish at the state meet. He still had a good kick and still passed a half dozen runners in the final mile of that race. But when asked by a reporter after the race to describe what was going on in his head during that last mile, he said:

Coming around that last time I was just asking God, “Keep me loose, keep me loose,”... Than at a point down here it was, “Make me want it.” He gave me enough strength to pick off some guys and have the race of my life.

And in our own life's running, as we strive to find balance between burning out and saving too much, we, too, long to stay loose and finish strong.  And we, too, can and should cry out - “Lord, make me want it. Give me the race of my life...”

...Yes, of course we should “burn out for God”; I want to, too – to live all my life for Him. But we don't need to burn out for Him like gasoline – explosively, burning everybody around us in the process. We can burn out like charcoal – slowly, steadily, over a long period of time, and good to the last golden marshmallow!             - Anne Ortlund

 

*http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424127887324807704579085084130007974

**From Hebrew 12:1-3

***From 1 Corinthians 9:24-25