The race marked out for you

Roy, my 86 year old cycling friend regularly rides up to 30 miles at a slow steady pace. Our friend Caroline can ride 200 miles at a fast and focused pace. Chris, a cyclist I once met pedalled 16,500-mile from Bewdley to Beijing at a measured pace. Distance and speed may vary in their individual journey but each of them is doing the same thing –spinning pedals and looking ahead.  They each like some company, most of us do. Being surrounded by people who understand us and even those who are moving in the same direction can be great. Yet for those who cycle we know that ultimately we are alone on the bike.

There is a challenge in the Christian scriptures found in the book of Hebrews chapter 12, It is to “fix our eyes on Jesus.”  Jesus being the target of our desire and not to be neglected for the sake of what we are passing as we near him. It’s helpful to be, “Surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses,” because we might find support to keep us going. In moving forward we are encouraged to remember the “race marked out for us.” That race is about the pace of our journey towards a greater understanding of God. We fix our eyes on Jesus because he is our pace setter.

In our journey of faith there will be occasions when we have the company and encouragement of others, that’s great. But we have to keep reminding ourselves that we don’t need to keep up with the theologian’s intellect, the flamboyance of the evangelist or even the persistence’s of the great intercessor. We follow Jesus in the “race marked out for us,” not someone else.

As we seek to grow in faith, are we pursuing God at the pace God sets out for us or are we trying to keep up with someone else in their race?  Augustine said “To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement.”

My prayer today is that I will find encouragement from others as I remain focused on God.