“I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”

–Acts 20:24

            So for those of you who know me, you probably have a pretty good idea that I am not a big runner. I don’t find it enjoyable as some do to go out and run until I am tired because that would stop at the end of the driveway. The only time you will see me running is when it is involved in another sport like softball or Frisbee, and even then you will see me puffing and needing a break. A few years ago when my brother was in cross country he and some of his team mates did this race in Des Moines Iowa called Living History Farms. It is about a 7 mile run with some creek crossings and hot stew and food at the finish line.

I had gone to watch him run this race a couple of times and got it in my head that I was going to do it. I wanted to challenge myself to see if I could even accomplish something like that. So the next year both my wife and I signed up and decided that we were going to do it. Well I told you how much I enjoy running so you can imagine how much I trained. That’s right, unless I was playing some sort of intramural at college I don’t think I trained one bit. Anyway, the race starts and it was alright (except for almost getting run over by a deer). Then after the first mile or so I realized what we had gotten into, but we signed up and were going to finish it. I mean there was hot stew waiting for us. There were some times that I wasn’t sure we were going to finish the run and it was one of the most physically taxing things I have ever done but I am glad to say that I did finish. Now I just try to keep the crazy ideas to shorter 5k obstacle races like the Warrior Dash.

I am sure thankful that we have a God who doesn’t get a crazy idea in His head and just goes with it to see what happens. He knows the path that we are going to take through life, our ups and downs, our joys and sorrows, and He knows when our race will come to an end. What He starts, He completes including sending His son Jesus to take our place on the cross. At any point He could have told Jesus to forget it and come home because they aren’t worth it, but He didn’t. He sent Him to the cross so that we could finish our course of faith can end in heaven with Him.

QOTD: What does it mean to you that God finishes what He starts?

“Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: if you’re alive, it isn’t.”

–Richard Bac