You Got to Finish
July in Tour De France month for me, I am inspirited when I see the effort and commitment from the riders. The price they are willing to pay for success. We have a multi day stage race here in Bend. A friend of mine invited me to ride in one of the team cars on Saturday for a local team that has riders in the race. My job was to give the team bottles of water and gatorade type drinks when the bottles they were carrying were empty. I saw performances all across the spectrum from less than a mile out from the start line quitting and saying I don’t have it. To three of the riders from the team finishing in the top 30 out of about 75 starters. Right before the end of the race there was this hill, that was so steep and it went forever it seemed like. The grade was 7 – 8 percent and I believe it was about 2 miles long. In the car you could hear the engine working, it was so steep. My friend kept saying before we got to the hill “I hate the hill coming up” He said it over and over and over. You could hear in his voice him recalling the pain and frustration of when he had ridden the hill. The pain and agony it had caused him.
When we got the finish line we were congratulating the riders on the great job they did. Terry the rider that had finished in the top ten (I believe) was talking about how much she liked that hill, the very one my friend had been saying over and over how much he hated. My friend is a very good rider and is on the team but he is injured, other wise he would have been riding in the race. So he’s no wimp when it comes to riding and racing bikes. Terry had made the transition from pain and effort to knowing when they rode that hill and gave it all they had. They were better off than before they rode the hill. They had faith that the effort had been worth it. And had kept her eyes on the prize.
We can make that same conclusion in life. In the bible Paul writes in Hebrews chapter 11 about faith. He recounts some of the great men and woman in the bible that had faith, and how God rewarded their faith. In verse 40 Paul writes “For God had far better things in mind for us that would also benefit them, for they can’t receive the prize at the end of the race until we finish the race. The key to me here, we have to finish the race we can’t quit.There have been some things I have been worrying about, I haven’t been exercising my faith/ When I’ve been looking at the hills in my life, all I’ve been seeing is the agony and effort it will take, not seeing the prize In the next two verses Hebrews 12:1-2 Paul writes “therefore let us run the race with endurance, the race that God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus on whom our faith depends from start to finish”
I was able to see an example of the kind of faith this week end, Terry kept her eyes on the prize, the finish line. It encourages me to keep my eyes on the prize, a better and stronger relationship with Christ. You Got to Finish
