Finishing the race!

This is the last day of school! I can hardly believe it! It was such a difficult year, but God has been so very faithful! I’m amazed by the grace He has shown me and by the strength He has given me. I’ve been thinking for a few weeks now about how important it is to finish this race in victory and not just limping across the finish line. Paul loved to use the racing analogy:

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. (1 Cor 9:24 ESV)

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. (1 Tim 4:7 ESV)

Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:1-2)

I was just telling some friends last night that I feel like I am finishing the year running, not limping, across the finish line. And then, at about 10:00 last night, I developed a painful limp! My hip is hurting (probably because I’ve been sitting at the computer for hours doing report cards), and I’m having trouble even limping this morning! :) I think God just wants to remind me that I run because HE gives me the strength. On my own I am a limping mess! 

I recently read a quote in the new book about the 30-year marriage of Joni Erickson Tada (the quadriplegic Christian artist, author, speaker, and singer) and Ken Tada. In it they are very REAL about the challenges in their marriage. Ken quotes a man who said that the problem with life is that it is lived daily! Isn’t that the truth? It is an endurance race, which is why Paul says we need to run it with endurance. The day-to-day grind of the ordinary, sprinkled with moments of urgency and crisis, can absolutely wear us down. We cannot run it to the finish line without the proper training in God’s Word daily. I’m so grateful that some of you choose to meet me here each morning, so that we may meet Him.

Hang in there, friends! We are being cheered on by that “great cloud of witnesses.” My body may be limping today, but my spirit is sprinting! I can look back over the past school year and truly thank God for the joy of a hard year! But I’m also soooo excited to have some rest for a while! PHEW!