Before We Begin, Let’s Decide to Finish

“And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.” (Hebrews 12:1b)

This very verse was on the back of my race shirt the day I tore my meniscus in a half-marathon. Ironic, I know – a verse about running during a time when I literally couldn’t keep running. But maybe that’s exactly the point, because I didn’t know this verse until I couldn’t run. Sitting here today, with titanium now inside that knee, “running our race with perseverance” means something so much deeper.

In those years of running races, I chose running because it helped me calm stress, find community, and manage my weight. But when my knee injury sidelined running, and I could (literally) only sit with God, my race suddenly looked very different.

I had to fix my eyes on Jesus.

Our races take detours. When jobs shift, relationships change, health concerns arise, or any manner of other unexpected, often painful interruptions alter our paths, we can find ourselves facing a season of uninvited slowing and waiting.

Detours can feel disorienting. Disappointing. Even heartbreaking.

I remember leaning over in pain in the shadow of the iconic Spaceship Earth in Epcot, that tear in my knee completely changing the last leg of the race in less than a second. My running stopped during the race.

Oh, I asked why so many times. But even as I asked, I also knew that the detour didn’t take God by surprise. While God didn’t cause the tear, He had plans to use it. All these years later, I can’t count the ways He has done exactly that.

When we find ourselves taken out by the unexpected, we can know Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, is ready to lead us forward in a different way. And if we believe that He truly is the author and perfecter, we can know, even in the hardest of circumstances, that our race will continue. In Philippians, we see three choices that implore us to keep running:

“Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.” (Phil 3:13-14, emphasis added)

Even when it’s hard, even when it hurts, even when we want to quit, we can choose these three postures as we navigate unexpected turns or pauses in our race:

1 | Forget what is behind

For two entire, but separate, years (that’s a whole other long story), my knee injury meant I couldn’t even take a walk to clear my head. Instead, I sat with (whined to) Jesus, and I must tell you, I’m an outstanding wallower. Expert level.

As I look back, I see it took me a looooong time to forget what was behind me. But I finally realized that if I kept looking back, I would miss His way forward. I don’t want to be Lot’s wife (Gen 19:26)! We want to look forward – run forward – with expectation for what God has planned for us. Even in our questions, our pain, our grief, He has good waiting on the other side.

2 | Strain toward what is ahead

When we step into the race that God leads us on, we’re joining Him in a race where He is the author and perfecter (Heb 12:1). Let’s look at the Greek meanings for these important roles:

• Author: chief leader, pioneer, captain

• Perfecter (the only use of this word in our Bibles): one who has raised faith to its perfection, our highest example of faith

If Jesus is our captain, our leader, our highest example of faith, then why wouldn’t we strain toward Him? Yes, following Jesus indeed asks more of and from us than choosing our own path – but it’s also true that fixing our eyes on Him will guide us through His race. It may not be the easiest path, but if we’re following Him, we know it’s the right one – the one that moves our faith closer to perfection. What other race would we want? We aren’t promised a life without trial, but we are promised that Perfection Himself captains our journey.

3 | Press on to the prize

Pressing on toward the prize implies intensity. “Pressing on” in the Greek means “to pursue or follow after, to strive energetically for some purpose.” Over in 1 Corinthians, Paul tells us that we are to run to get the prize (1 Cor 9:24) – not a consolation prize or a participation medal, but the prize. That’s more than fitting in a fun little jog on a Saturday morning. That means we look at our race with purpose. We don’t want to run a lukewarm race – you know, the kind that Jesus wants to spit out (Rev 3:15-16). He invites us to so much more, and when we choose to press on, we’re accepting His invitation.

In the race that day, when I felt the tear rip across my knee, I leaned on my running partner to hobble through the final mile, in tears. The finish line waited.

It hurt. And by His grace, I finished.

That medal still hangs on my wall, twelve years later, as a reminder that when we fix our eyes on Jesus and trust Him to lead us, as our captain, we gain the prize. We gain Jesus.

May we fix our eyes. May we keep going. May we run hard after Him until we finish.