"You've all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You're after one that's gold eternally. I don't know about you, but I'm running hard for the finish line…" 1 Corinthians 9:24-25 (MSG)
Just a few hours ago, many of us huddled around a TV set, watching the two best teams in football face-off in SuperBowl XLIV. The Saints now have the supreme right to raise the Lombardi trophy and shout “We’re number one!” And, for this season, they are the undisputed World Champions. But, what about the other 31 teams that competed on playing fields throughout the country? They did just as we did… watched the game as a spectators. We can make a lot of interesting comparisons here, between the physical and spiritual realms. We see in the Bible numerous instances of life being compared to things… one of them being an athletic competition.
Much like an athlete needs certain traits to excel, we too must discover and apply the few, key components that our Coach, Jesus, says we need in order to win the race we’re in. Who knows, maybe we can learn something from this annual sporting event that helps us understand what it is that separates the one who succumbs from the one who overcomes in life. I’ll leave you with one final, thought-provoking word from the Apostle Paul:
"Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." Philippians 3:12-14 (NIV)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment