Run to Win

By Chaplain (Col) Stephen W. Leonard, USA, Ret.

I ran a bit of track in my day. In Elementary School, Junior High, High School and College; and even after college, in the Army. I ran the mile in the bi-annual Army Physical Fitness Test, in combat boots, no less. But I was never an Olympian. Not even close. Those athletes are the best in the world. 

Running was for me not only a discipline, but it was fun. I can’t even attempt it today, however, in my late 70s with my aging ailments, not if my life depended on it. Oh, to be young again! 

But if you run in a race, even if you are not necessarily a gifted runner, you always run to win! And that is what the Apostle Paul’s analogy in 1 Corinthians 9 is all about! 

In the early Olympics in Greece, the prize for winning was not a Gold medal; it was a wreath in the shape of a circle or horseshoe made out of olive leaves growing on interwoven twigs from the olive trees growing wild in Greece.

This is why poets and bards spoke of “wreaths of glory” as athlete and warrior heroes were crowned with “laurels,” wreaths placed upon the crowns of their heads, rather than medals hung around their necks. Those who ran, sought “wreaths of glory.”

Whether a race is between two or twenty, all run to win, else they would not participate. No one goes to the Olympics for the thrill of defeat. They compete rather for experiencing the thrill of victory! 

Such drives them to discipline their bodies and hone their skills. They give their all to capture the prize. And that is exactly what you expect. Give everything you have to be victorious. 

This is how you ought to approach the race of life. The prize is heaven. But do not misunderstand; we do not earn heaven through our works. We receive it as a free gift, by faith in clinging to Jesus Christ as our Savior. Reaching heaven always is by the grace, the unmerited favor, of God.

But once IN Christ Jesus by faith, you run the race with everything within you, to win! Not by being found unfit. None of us “coast” into heaven being slothful or living slovenly, unrighteous lives. We always “press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 3:14)

Pressing means running so as to win, disciplining your minds, bodies, and souls to live as truly fit disciples of Jesus Christ. Not slacking, but with eyes constantly on the face of Jesus, clinging fiercely to Him, and trusting to be found in Him, fully satisfied by Him and in Him, especially when we awake (from death) and stand face to face (Psalm 17:15). 

Run to win. Jesus desires to see that in you. And you “run” in many ways, even as an ailing old man like me; you may run in prayer, in quiet perseverance unto righteousness, in kindness, in being verbal of the grace which is in you, in holiness of life, even as a “shut-in” because of age disabilities. Whatever age and health you are, you can run the race set before you to win by the grace of God.

Encouragement