Perseverance
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” Hebrews 12:1
If you have ever been in a race before, whether a half marathon or even the Great Day 5K, you remember the excitement, and maybe nervousness, you feel as you wait for the race to start. People who are feeling the same thing surround you; there may be people warming up or others who are try to “get their heads in the game.” Everyone in the crowd is getting ready for the same thing; they are all getting prepared for the same race, though they may have different approaches.
People have their warm-up routines and then all of the sudden the race starts. I can remember starting one race and thinking to myself “there is all this build up before the race and then like that the race has begun and I still have 13.1 miles left to run.”
In life we can sometimes feel this way too, there is all this build up to a big event and then when it arrives it’s just so normal. Typically when this happens it can be so hard to keep up the race. It’s like a sugar high, and the energy is hard to maintain.
We can sometimes run into the problem in our spiritual lives. Especially at camp, we get on this high because we are surrounded by God’s creation. We hear about His saving grace, and we are living in a loving community. Once you leave camp, the race does not stop. What God offers us is people He puts in our lives to run the race with us.
That half marathon I was talking about earlier.. I ran it with one of my best friends. Let me tell you, running with a friend makes the race significantly easier. When I wanted to give up and walk I had my friend right there beside me encouraging me to keep going. There were definitely moments I wanted to give up, (mile 7 was basically an uphill climb), but with my friend running the same course beside me we finished the race.
God is going to do the same thing in our spiritual lives with the people God has brought into our lives, bringing us encouragement through friends and people we love. Look around you and see the people who are running this race with you. Then seek out those people for encouragement. God calls us to “run the race with perseverance” and He helps us all along the way.