Olympic Running

Like many of you I enjoy watching the Olympics. This past week I saw a short documentary on some of the athletes preparing for their moment on the world’s stage of sport in Paris, this summer. The runners begin by wrapping weights around their ankles. They run and run with those weights. Then, as their leg muscles strengthen, they remove the weights. Wow! They run like the wind!

There is a wonderful, encouraging passage in Hebrews 12:1-2, “Since we are surrounded by such a huge cloud of witnesses (Christians in the past whose lives have been an example to us) of the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up, and let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the Champion who initiates and perfects our faith” (NLT words in parentheses mine, bold print added).

All of our life is a training period of walking close to Jesus, letting His light shine though us. We may feel slowed down by weights of discouragement, or grief, or anger, or lost hope and fading peace. In the above verse we have the secret to run our life’s race successfully — by keeping our eyes on Jesus. In His Word we find all the encouragement we need. We find joy in singing His praises, in reminding ourselves of past blessings. We are lifted from depths of sorrow when we meditate on the truths of His Word. The world’s weights can be heavy, but focusing on the joy and hope found only in Jesus, removes the weights that hold us back from pursuing our goal with confidence and joy found only in Jesus.

Weights of this world may slow us all down, but they cannot knock us off course when we remember to lift our eyes to Him, filling our thoughts with words of His love. When we are focused on God, through whom all things are possible, then strength will come, and like the runner in the Olympics, “we will run and not be weary; we will walk and not faint” (Isaiah 40:31).