Look Where You’re Going

And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2 (NIV)

I remember being in gym class as a kid and as soon as the teacher uttered the words “run,” “race,” or “relay” I filled with dread and my face would flush from the impending humiliation of  being the last one to cross the finish line…again.  Even before my diagnosis of MS and I was still able to run, I would never choose to do so voluntarily.  I don’t know if it was because I never felt like I was in that much of a hurry or I was just lazy.

Okay, okay, it’s definitely the latter!  I loathed running. I’m not even sure I would choose to run today if there was a clown with a knife chasing after me. I would just give up and accept my fate because running is exhausting and creepy clowns with knives always win; at least in the movies.

Since I’ve shared with you my very strong feelings about running, you probably won’t be surprised when I tell you that I find it amusing that the author of Hebrews would use the analogy of running a race to encourage us to persevere no matter what we endure in life. I wonder if he knew that almost two thousand years after writing this there would be a less-than-ambitious girl who would immediately understand that running is hard and persevering while running is even harder.

Please notice that he doesn’t just encourage us to keep running even when the running gets hard. No, he tells us how to keep running when the running gets hard—keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, who persevered to the point of death and never lost faith in or sight of God.

Now, I don’t know about you but I can get so focused on the running, and the difficulty of the course, that I can’t see anything or anyone else other than what’s right in front of me.  I find it hard to lift my head and look beyond my circumstances.

How about you?

Are you struggling to see beyond your circumstances today?

Are the hills and obstacles on your course exhausting you, making you want to quit?

We know that Jesus too got overwhelmed with His race.  Matthew 26:38 says, “He told them, ‘My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Yet He persevered and ran His race all the way to Calvary where He endured the cross and scorned its shame (Hebrews 12:2).

Why?

For the joy set before Him.

Friends, that joy is the same joy that awaits us at our finish line. Jesus knew where He was going the whole time He was running His race here on Earth. He knew He would run into betrayal, suffering, and death. BUT, He also knew His ultimate destination and the purpose of His race and He ran it for the joy that waited for Him…and us.

The author of Hebrews refers to Jesus as the “pioneer and perfecter of faith.”  The Greek for these words translates to He is the originator and finisher of faith. No wonder we are instructed to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. He’s already run His race and He runs ours with us.

We will never encounter the obstacle of death like Jesus did. Still, we can trip over the obstacles we do encounter and struggle to get back up and run. I know I get tripped up a lot by hurdles in my life. I even sometimes relive the pain and difficulty of past hurdles and lose sight of the finish line. Maybe this is why we’re instructed to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and not fixed on the finish line. Jesus helps us to get to the finish line.  The finish line doesn’t help us to get to Jesus.

My current hurdle in this race of mine is the pain associated with MS and the mental battle it brings. But I know there is joy beyond words waiting for me when I finish my race because my Savior secured that victory when He finished His. It’s waiting for you too.

We each have a “course marked out for us.”  Our courses may be different but our example on how to finish well is the same—Jesus.

Now, let’s lace up our running shoes and do what our mammas always told us—“Look where you're going!”