This has always been one of my favourite passages of Scripture. There is so much in there. You can dissect it word by word, phrase by phrase, and find such a wealth of wisdom and information. I could write a book on this passage, with a chapter on each little phrase!
The part I want to focus on here is "let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." This phrase has taken on new meaning for me. Based on this verse, I always pictured the Christian race as a marathon - with the runner just cruising around the track with the "great cloud of witnesses" cheering her on from the stands. But what if our race is more like a combination of American Ninja Warrior and Survivor instead of a marathon?!
Up until a couple of years ago, my "race" was being a mother, wife, and teacher. My job was to impart knowledge, wisdom, and spiritual understanding to my children and my students. It was a fun race! I love being a mom, and I loved being a teacher. I was cruising around the track, dropping pearls of wisdom on children and guiding them as they grew.
But I've been fighting cancer for over two years now, and my "race" feels more like crawling through the jungle, hacking away at different obstacles and climbing over mountains. It's not a very fun race anymore. I'm no longer cruising around the track. I'm on my hands and knees scraping through the gravel. This is the race that is set before me now.
The challenge of this verse is to run this race with endurance. That is the hard part. Many days, I just want to quit. I feel useless and tired, and I'm not particularly enjoying my race. So how do we run with endurance? I love that God gives us the answer in this passage as well: Look to Jesus. I need to take my eyes off the racetrack (or obstacle course in this case!) and lift my eyes to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of my faith.
Jesus also had a race to run, and His wasn't much fun either. He was whipped, mocked, scorned, beaten, nailed painfully to a cross, and died in one of the most cruel ways possible - not to mention the shame that came with being crucified as a common criminal. And why did He endure that? For you and me. He took the punishment for sin upon Himself so we don't have to face it. He triumphed over sin and death when He rose from the dead, and now He is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Surely I can face my obstacles with hope because He did that for me.
This life is so short, and the struggles we face are so temporary in light of eternity. Second Corinthians 4:16-18 says, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal" (NIV).
I need to remember this when I struggle with endurance. Honestly, I'm so tired of fighting cancer, but I can't give up. Jesus went through so much more than I am going through, and God is with me in this fight. He fills me with joy, peace, and patience as I run this race (even if sometimes it's a crawl).
