Fleeing Temptation - Sean Patrick

Created or Creator? - Jared Keiffer

"Marathon or Sprint?" by: Jared Keiffer

"It’s a marathon, not a sprint!"

Back in the days that I turned in regular 100 hour work weeks at a CPA firm I was constantly encouraged that life and your career was a marathon, not a sprint. I must admit I think I probably said that to people too when a conversation came to an awkward standstill and I had no better cliché to pull out. But what does that mean?

Pace yourself. One of the most important aspects of a marathon, and probably where this catchphrase comes from, is pacing yourself. If you talk to a rookie marathoner, it is typically the greatest tactical challenge that they face. They don’t want to over-exert themselves in the first few miles and end up not finishing the race. When it comes to life and career, a similar mindset is taken. Where a sprint is about all out exertion, a marathon is about pace and caution.

“You’ve got a thirty or forty year career ahead, don’t wear yourself out in your first five years!”

I wonder how many of us take this mindset and apply it directly to our life in Christ?

The apostle Paul gives us a touch of truth into the race that is our life: 1 Corinthians 9:24 “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.”

How painful to be a runner in the race and finish with a bit left in the tank. How painful to finish and not even be winded.

When we cross the great finish line in this life and come face to face with the creator, how do you want to have run the race? Do you want to give an account of a sprint that left you exhausted and spent for the cause of Christ? Or do you want to run a well paced, casual jog that leaves you with plenty left in the tank and regrets abounding?

As Paul prepares to finish his life on earth he says this to his young protege in 2nd Timothy 4: 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

Paul knew with confidence that he had sprinted out his life and was eager to finish in the arms of his savior. He had been tormented, beaten, and mocked. He had gone without food and had toiled long hours for the sake of the gospel. He wrote these final words in a prison awaiting his execution.

Are you jogging or sprinting? Are you giving it all and spending yourself in the pursuit of God?