Finish the Race

2 Timothy 4:3-8

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have

kept the faith. (2 Tim. 4:7)

 

TEN YEARS AGO, I completed the Chicago

marathon. Notice I said "completed," not

"ran" or "won."My goal was to finish those

26.2 miles any way I could. I walked some,

ran some, but never, ever stopped to rest.

My finish time was 6:22:58. I placed

24,329th out of 24,687 finishers. And I have

a certificate, photo, and finisher's medal to

prove it! I remember standing in that crowd

of twenty-five thousand people waiting for

the starting gun, musing, In what other

sport could I be in the same "field" with

elite, even Olympic, athletes from around

the world? It was thrilling! Much later I

heard Khalid Khannouchi had broken the

world marathon record that day with a time

of 2:05:42. (The current record is 2:03:59.)

And, yes, he could have run the whole

marathon three times before I finished. The

point is, I finished.

 

Paul said the same thing to Timothy: "I

have finished the race." Though in his letter

to the Philippians Paul said we are to "run

to win the prize" (3:14), nowhere does Paul

say he won. He simply says he finished.

Crossing that finish line in Chicago was

one of my most exciting achievements. But

for all of us, the greatest victory we will

ever experience is crossing the heavenly

finish line and hearing our Savior say, "Well

done, good and faithful servant."

 

Mary McNeil

 

Keep running to finish strong!