Run the Race
In a previous life (while pastoring a church in Williamsburg, VA) I became a high school coach for girls varsity softball. It was quite a three year experience, with our daughter Jessie being on the team and our young son Luke serving as the team mascot.
For our home games it was necessary to line the field before each game, a responsibility that fell to the head coach. Just before the first game, I dutifully prepared the white spray paint machine and meticulously began my task, starting at home plate and moving to first base. My eye was very focused on the blurred remains of the previous line and, with head bowed and hand steady, off I stepped into the world of softball-game-line-painting. When I reached first base I proudly turned back to home plate to see my work of art, only to be shocked to painfully discover a line that must have been painted by a drunken sailor posing as a head softball coach.
For the next game, I figured there simply must be a better way and, happily, there was. Well beyond first and third bases, in the outfield, were outfield foul polls standing about 12 feet high. I found that if I stood at home plate with my eye focused on that poll several hundred feet away, walked slowly and not breaking my gaze from it, that my painted line to first base was straight and true. Play ball!
The Christian life is something like that, and God tells us in Hebrews 12:1-2 that as we live the Christian life (running the race that is set before us) we are to fix our eyes on Jesus. What does that mean? We will be exploring that very question in a 12 week sermon series after Easter called, "Looking Unto Jesus." I hope you will be blessed by these messages from God's Word, and invite a friend who perhaps has not yet placed their faith in our Lord. May Jesus be lifted up, and hearts, minds, wills, and emotions be drawn to him.