{"id":4072,"date":"2024-10-08T06:59:12","date_gmt":"2024-10-08T10:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4072"},"modified":"2024-10-08T07:00:12","modified_gmt":"2024-10-08T11:00:12","slug":"winning-the-right-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/08\/winning-the-right-race\/","title":{"rendered":"Winning the Right Race"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/SlowCyclingRace-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4073\" width=\"439\" height=\"293\" srcset=\"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/SlowCyclingRace-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/SlowCyclingRace-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/SlowCyclingRace-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/SlowCyclingRace-624x416.jpg 624w, https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/10\/SlowCyclingRace.jpg 1329w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 439px) 100vw, 439px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>To listen to today&#8217;s reflection as a podcast,&nbsp;<\/em><a href=\"https:\/\/glennsreflections.us17.list-manage.com\/track\/click?u=c4927dfbefb9749e5fef1581d&amp;id=a5c9f77288&amp;e=5cd2a880e9\">click here<\/a><br><br>Community sports days in rural India occasionally feature a truly unusual event.<br><br>It\u2019s called the slow cycling race.<br><br>The goal of the race is not to take off as soon as the gun sounds, but to move as slowly as possible.&nbsp;In fact, it\u2019s best if you can remain completely still on your bicycle, your feet never touching the ground, in which case you would be disqualified.<br><br>The goal of the race is to come in dead last. Some competitors are so adept at remaining stationary that the distance of the race is only a few yards.<br><br>Imagine a visiting cycling champion from another culture standing there before the gun sounds.<br><br>He sees the riders hop onto their bikes and thinks, \u201cI wish I could be in this race so I could teach these beginners a few things about cycling.\u201d&nbsp;If he\u2019s offered the opportunity, imagine his surprise at what happens next.<br><br>At the pop of the starting pistol he speeds off and breaks through the tape first, only to look back and notice that the rest of the cyclists are still at the starting line trying to balance their motionless bikes.<br><br>Imagine his astonishment that he has finished <em>last<\/em>, even though he crossed the line <em>first<\/em>.<br><br>It pays to know the purpose of a race before we try to win it.&nbsp;<br><br>It pays to know how we should define a rich and meaningful life before we speed off, assuming we\u2019re winning, when in fact we can\u2019t even state what kind of life God has actually called us to.<br><br><em>He who dies with the most toys wins.<\/em><br><br><em>Money is life\u2019s scorekeeper.<\/em><br><br><em>If I just made $10,000 more, I\u2019d truly be happy.<\/em><br><br><em>I need to work hard now, but when life finally settles down I\u2019ll start thinking about spiritual things.<\/em><br><br>There\u2019s no shortage of bankrupt philosophies in the world. Some of history\u2019s most famous self-proclaimed \u201cwinners\u201d are convinced they have outsmarted, outhustled, and outmaneuvered everyone they know.<br><br>Jesus offers this warning:&nbsp;\u201cThe last will be first, and the first will be last\u201d&nbsp;(Matthew 20:16).<br><br>It pays to learn how God defines the Good Life.<br><br>That will certainly help us keep our balance in whatever slow race he\u2019s set before us this day.<br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To listen to today&#8217;s reflection as a podcast,&nbsp;click here Community sports days in rural India occasionally feature a truly unusual event. It\u2019s called the slow cycling race. The goal of the race is not to take off as soon as the gun sounds, but to move as slowly as possible.&nbsp;In fact, it\u2019s best if you can remain completely still on&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2024\/10\/08\/winning-the-right-race\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4073,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[818],"class_list":["post-4072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-purpose"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4072","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=4072"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4075,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4072\/revisions\/4075"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4073"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}