{"id":1666,"date":"2022-05-24T10:11:03","date_gmt":"2022-05-24T14:11:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=1666"},"modified":"2022-05-24T10:11:59","modified_gmt":"2022-05-24T14:11:59","slug":"running-the-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2022\/05\/24\/running-the-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Running the Race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Two weekends ago, more than 20,000 runners, joggers, walkers, and wheelchair participants left the starting line of the OneAmerica Indy Mini-Marathon. 
 
The race is one of the world\u2019s premiere 13.1-mile annual events.  It begins and ends in downtown Indianapolis, and famously includes a single two-and-a-half-mile lap around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the \u201c500.\u201d 
 
For some participants, the Mini-Indy is the greatest spectacle in costuming.  People dress up as animals, vegetables, and superheroes.  This year one runner was a lobster.  Another was decked out head to toe as Batman.  It\u2019s all fun and games at the starting line.
 
Then the race begins. 
 
I joined the spectators who lined the route, eager to cheer on my son Mark and 10-year-old grandson Nico (both of whom have completed full marathons).  I stood at about the 11-mile mark \u2013 the point at which you can definitely tell the contenders from the pretenders.  The lobster ran by, looking cooked.  Batman was a few paces behind, urgently in need of the Bat Shower.  When Nico and Mark came into view, they were smiling and waving. 
 
As if to underline the challenges of pushing one\u2019s body to the limits, 15 runners participating in last weekend\u2019s Brooklyn half-marathon in New York City had to be hospitalized because of high temperatures and humidity.  Tragically, one 30-year-old participant made it to the finish line, only to die of heat exhaustion. 
 
Historians suggest that footraces are the oldest form of athletic competition.  Anybody can run, since no special equipment is required.  But long-distance running is rigorous, which is one reason why the author of the New Testament book of Hebrews, whose identity has never been established, boldly describes following Jesus as a race that lasts a lifetime:   
 
\u201cLet us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the Pioneer and Perfecter of faith,\u201d we read in Hebrews 12:1-2.
 
Note that our race has been \u201cmarked out for us.\u201d  Those who follow Christ don\u2019t run aimlessly.   
 
When the editors of Life<\/em> magazine compiled a book on the contemporary search for the meaning of human existence, they packed its pages with a variety of first-person testimonies.  Here\u2019s what Jose Martinez, a taxi driver from New York, said about the meaning of his life:
 
We\u2019re here to die, just live and die.  I live driving a cab.  I do some fishing, take my girl out, pay taxes, do a little reading, then get ready to drop dead.  Life is a big fake!  You\u2019re rich or you\u2019re poor.  You\u2019re here, you\u2019re gone.  You\u2019re like the wind.  After you\u2019re gone, other people will come.  It\u2019s too late to make it better\u2026 We\u2019re going to destroy ourselves, nothing we can do about it\u2026 Life is nothing.<\/em>
 
If you end up taking a ride in Jose\u2019s cab, I suspect you may find yourself a little more depressed by the time you arrive at your destination.  But here\u2019s the irony:  If he\u2019s a good cabbie, you will indeed arrive at your destination.  That\u2019s because he will follow the pathways that are \u201cmarked out\u201d for a successful journey between two points \u2013 something which he thinks is impossible when it comes to human life.
 
And how do we discern what route is marked out for us?  We \u201ckeep our eyes on Jesus.\u201d 
 
That means continually immersing ourselves in the stories of Jesus, the words of Jesus, and the example of Jesus as found in the Bible\u2019s four Gospels.
 
It hasn\u2019t been easy to for me to keep my eyes on Jesus.  That\u2019s because I\u2019ve spent virtually my whole life keeping my eyes on me.  <\/em>I\u2019ve been preoccupied with my own needs, my own hurts, and my own appetites.  Learning how to pay attention to Jesus doesn\u2019t happen in a few days or a few weeks.  Being a disciple isn\u2019t a quick sprint.  It\u2019s a marathon \u2013 in truth, a race that will continue as long as I\u2019m alive in this world.
 
Therefore the author of Hebrews writes, \u201cLet us run with perseverance<\/em>\u2026\u201d
 
If you\u2019re reading these words, you\u2019re off and running.  You\u2019re in the race.
 
Maybe you\u2019ve stumbled along the way.  Maybe you left the path that was marked out for you.  Maybe you want to quit.
 
But it doesn\u2019t matter how we start.  What matters is how we finish.
 
Finish well \u2013 with your eyes fixed on the One who is setting the pace just a few steps ahead.    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two weekends ago, more than 20,000 runners, joggers, walkers, and wheelchair participants left the starting line of the OneAmerica Indy Mini-Marathon.  The race is one of the world\u2019s premiere 13.1-mile annual events.  It begins and ends in downtown Indianapolis, and famously includes a single two-and-a-half-mile lap around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, home of the \u201c500.\u201d  For some participants, the Mini-Indy is the… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1667,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10],"class_list":["post-1666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-perseverance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1666"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1669,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1666\/revisions\/1669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}