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Keeping the Pace

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Last Saturday, October 12, Eliud Kipchoge became the first person to run a marathon in under two hours. There were several factors that contributed to Kipchoge’s amazing achievement, among which was a team that helped him run the race. Unlike a normal marathon race where runners are competing against each other, this marathon was designed to help him break the two-hour mark. Forty elite runners were rotated in as pace setters. They ran in a precise formation to help break the wind for him. They were also guided by a pace car that projected a green laser to show where they should run to keep the shortest distance on the course. All of this aided an amazing marathoner to achieve his goal.

In the letter of Hebrews we are exhorted with these words:  “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (12:1-2). The Christian life is like an endurance race. We must patiently continue to endure and set our minds on the final goal. This race will not be won if we allow sin to slow us down and take us off pace.

A team is invaluable to helping us achieve our goal of going to heaven. The book of Hebrews highlights the deceitfulness of sin and our responsibility as Christians to help one another in running this race, “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” (3:12-13). The book also admonishes, “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” (10:24-25).

Paul wrote, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it” (1 Corinthians 9:24). In the context, Paul was warning about those who started the race but did not win the prize. He knew that as much as he had followed Christ, if he failed to live a disciplined life, then he could be disqualified (v. 27). The example of those Israelites who were delivered from Egyptian bondage yet never made it to the Promised Land is also given to remind us that starting the race doesn’t mean one will finish (1 Cor. 10:1-11).

The good thing about going to heaven is that we are not competing to get there. We all can pace each other into the finish line and receive eternal life. Then we will be able to say like Paul, “I have finished the race” (2 Timothy 4:7). Will you help me get to heaven?

 

–Mark Day