Run Your Leg of the Race Today
It’s Wednesday 7:15 a.m. Someone asks me how I am doing. “I’m good,” I reply. Then I ask, “How are you?” The response is quite common but sad nevertheless. “Wishing it was Friday,” was the automatic response I received. Wow. What a sad way to go through life. Working for a paycheck. Plowing through the week just to get to Friday so you don’t have to work for two whole days. That sounds like a wasted life. I want to be living for something- hoping for something- much bigger than “Friday.” I want to live a life of eternal significance everyday. I don’t want to waste my Wednesday. I don’t want to waste my life.
I get greeted with “Happy Monday” to start the week. “Thank God it’s Friday” is the greeting of choice at the end of the week. “Happy Friday” and “We made it!” are two other often heard greetings. In the middle I hear, “Wishing it was Friday.” I am bombarded with negativity, and I can quickly join in the murmuring if I am not careful. I need to preach to myself. I need to encourage myself so that I don’t get sucked into the despair and the murmuring. I start with Hebrews 12:1, “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” It’s Wednesday and I just want to run my section of the race today.
Schools can be tough places to work. People go through the work week like they are a beaten down, defeated group. No one says, “Wishing it was Friday,” in the volleyball world. No one is living for Friday because Friday we are taking a charter bus six hours to Omaha and playing three matches Saturday, three on Sunday, and two or three on Monday. If it’s not an out of town tournament then it’s Power League all day Saturday or Sunday. I appreciate not getting those rote responses from volleyball people. You are tired? My wife- the volleyball coach- had practice until 9:30 p.m. last night. The late shift is not the best shift for a teacher but we make due. She didn’t get home until after 10:00. We wake up at 4:30. We are all tired. I need to preach to myself again. “The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.” (Psalm 28:7)
How can the follower of Jesus mope through the week like the rest of America when we have so many promises of God to help push us through. “I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.” (Isaiah 41:10) For I, the LORD your God, hold your right hand; it is I who say to you, “Fear not, I am the one who helps you.” (Isaiah 41:13)
The people who make a durable difference in the world are the people who have been set on fire by one or two things in their life. John Piper taught me that. And like Pastor John, I find myself absolutely driven by this desire to not waste my life. I want my life to have eternal significance. I want my life to count for something great. I will not coast through my Wednesday, I will not coast through the week, I will not coast through life without a passion.
I want to be like the apostle Paul and be able to say that I did not shrink back (Acts 20:20,27). I never threw it in neutral. As Pastor Louie Giglio said in his sermon series called The Comeback, “We are running a bigger race than making it to the weekend. We are running a bigger race than fighting cancer. We are running a race to Jesus.” When it’s Wednesday and I am tempted to despair, I think about the promises of God all throughout the Bible. I hear Louie telling me to run with endurance the race that is set before me. I hear Louie encouraging me to be faithful. I hear him saying, “Run the leg that God has given you to run today. You don’t have to part the Red Sea, but we are asking you to do that thing that God has put in your hands to do. Be faithful in 2016 in the calling God has put on your life. Trust God that in your little leg of the race there’s significance, there’s meaning, there’s purpose, there’s God’s story going on, there’s God’s plan going on.”
Yes, it’s Wednesday 7:15 a.m. And I am going to cut ties with the negativity in the work world around me. I am going to fix my eyes on Jesus. I will keep my gaze on Jesus today. And I am going to be faithful today. I don’t have to run a marathon today. I am just going to run my leg today. I am going to run in my lane today. I am going to do what God’s called me to do today. And I trust God that there is significance in what I am doing this Wednesday. There’s meaning in me being here at work this Wednesday. There’s purpose, there’s God’s story and God’s plan going on today!
Thanks for reading- I’m Scott Raymond. I’m a volleyball husband, writer, and avid reader of non-fiction. I write primarily on emerging cities, technology, and horse racing. May 31 I begin a 12 week experiment in the world of software development with The Software Guild. Perhaps our technology and club volleyball life will take us to a new work in Champaign, IL or Atlanta, GA.
You can read more of my work at https://medium.com/@onehorsestable
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… Or contact me at onehorsestable at gmail dot com.
