Finish Strong

One Sunday Morning our pastor was doing a sermon about running a race. He showed a video of a young lady who came from behind to win a race. After she crossed the finish line she falls down.

My husband and I run 5k races and have for a few years. I hated working out; I hated running everything about it made me cringe. My husband loved running; he liked the way it made him feel after the run.

After a health scare I started running with him. I started out slow at first running a minute then walking for 5 minutes and now I can run 4 miles.

I do alright until the last quarter mile then I am ready to give up. My husband must sense this because after he finishes the race he will circle back around to find me. What he does next is so sweet; he will run beside me and speak encouraging words to me. He will tell me that I can do it and that I am almost to the finish line, don’t give up you are about there.

We are in a spiritual race, and at times it gets hard and we want to stop. I know I have felt like this especially in the hard times. I just want to give up and call it quits. That is until one night I had a dream, I was running a race and I couldn’t see any one. It felt like I was running by myself. That is until I heard voices, voices of my family members that went on to heaven before me. They were all telling me not to stop but to keep running. They were telling me encouraging words.

Surrounding us is a great cloud of witnesses, encouraging us to run the race that is set before us.  Hebrews 12:1

Once I see the finish line, my husband will go around to the other side of the finish line and hands me some water and tells me he is proud of me.  Sometimes I will grab the medal that everyone gets just for finishing.  

I just imagine Jesus waiting at the finish line, when we take our last breath.  With a big smile on his face saying “well done,” takes us in his arms and welcomes us home.

Let’s keep the faith and finish strong. Don’t stop, you can do it.