And The Race Is On!

Ever notice how the pace of life seems to get faster every year (or day!)?

I was driving out to a client on the Dallas North Tollway last week.  They have raised the speed limit on the northern part to 70.  So I'm trying to drive 70 in the middle lane and people are running me off the road!  There are those who run right up on my bumper, the zoom out and around to zoom back in and see how close they can come to clipping my front bumper.  There are others who do the long glide around me.  Then there are those who are just in other lanes zipping by.  Where's the fire?!?

I was thinking about racers.  There are those who are just glad to finish.  You see them on the track, working their way around.  They move over for the faster cars.  They are just enjoying the racing experience - glad to be able to finish.  Then there are those who are "in the hunt."  They are the ones who seem to think they have a chance to be first.  They will do anything, risk anything, break any rule they can to win.  To them second place is first looser!

Life is a lot like the race.  We will all get to the finish line.  The question is how will you run the race. 

Remember the movie Cars?  There is Lightning McQueen.  A rash, self-centered racer with eyes only on the finish line.  He is determined to win, not giving any consideration to others (especially his pit crew).  Then the life lessons - tutored by a master racer and others who are living life at a reasonable pace, caring about one another.  When he gets the change to win in the 3 way tie-breaker, he pulls up short, thinking of others first.  His concern for Strip "The King" Weathers over his desire to win gains him the thanks and admiration of the crowd (and Tex Dinoco).  As Chick "Thunder" Hicks blows over the finish line in first, thinking he is the winner, he is boo'd off the stage for his reckless and self-centered win. 

Being first does not make you the winner!  Running the race with integrety and compassion makes you a winner.

Or let's take a different look.  Remember Milo in "The Phantom Tollbooth", by Norton Juster (you really need to read that one)? "When he was in school he longed to be out, and when he was out he longed to be in.  On the way he thought about coming home, and coming home he though about going.  Wherever he was he wished he were somewhere else and when he got there he wondered why he'd bothered."  Allways in a hurry to get somewhere and then wondering why the rush.  It was never what he expected it to be.  Sound familiar?  Do you have the finish line in mind?  Are you just rushing from point to point?

The end does not always justify the means.  We each will answer for how we run.

So, all this to say we all have an eternal destiny.  We all run the race of life.  The finish line for our life here on Earth will be death.  No getting around it, no avoiding it.  What really matters is how you have lived.  Once you cross the finish line you will be asked a couple of questions.

The Father will ask "What have you done with Jesus?"

Jesus will ask "What have you done with what I have given you?"

Your answer to the first question will determine you seating for eternity!  (Smoking or non-smoking!)  The second question is one to make you think and reflect. 

God has given each of us a purpose, and equipped us to acomplish that purpose.

As you run the race, consider others:
John 3:16-17
Philippians 2:3
Philippians 2:1-30
Ephesians 5:21
Galatians 5:22
1 John 2:6
1 Peter 5:6
James 1:17

As you run the race, consider the goal:
Hebrews 12:1-2
1 Corinthians 9:26

How will you run?  Are you Lightning or Thunder?

Let's talk about it........