The Chicago Marathon was last Sunday, and the women’s race had a surprising end.  The front runner a younger Romanian newcomer named Adriana Pirtea held a half minute lead with less than  a mile to go over the older more experienced Ethiopian Berhane Adere.   Towards the end Pirtea who had run a great race started to smile and wave to the crowd because she was certain that victory was hers.  Adere the defending champion could see that Pirtea was slowing down and knew that she still had a chance so she said, “I decided to sprint.”  Within the last 50 meters or so of the race she overtook the unsuspecting Pirtea.  By the time Pirtea knew what was happening and tried to run it was too late.  Adere won the race by a mere 3 seconds!  Pirtea said this afterwards, ''I thought that someone in the crowd would say 'go' or 'someone's coming,' but nobody said anything, I wanted to push the pace, but it was too late. I didn't know what to feel. When I realized what actually happened, I had tears in my eyes.''

This story is replete with spiritual lessons; however, I want to focus on just one.  The Christian faith is often compared to a marathon because it requires great endurance to finish, and not just finish but finish strong.  Half the people in the Bible who failed morally did so in the second half of their lives.  I am convinced that God is looking for some strong finishers.  How we begin the race doesn’t matter nearly as much as how we run and especially how we finish the race.  Pirtea is typical of too many Christians who get side tracked by the world around them.  We lose sight of our goal, we lose our focus, and the next thing you know we’ve lost the race.  The longer we run the more comfort and complacency become our great enemies.  We feel that we have been running a good race and that we can now take it easy for awhile, put things on cruise control, and simply glide into the finish line.  Not so!  We must all run in such a way as to obtain the prize, exercising self-control and discipline in all things so that we will not be disqualified.  We must throw off every sinful thing (not some, but all) that is entangling us and run with perseverance and endurance the race that has been marked out for us.  We do not run aimlessly either, but with great purpose.  We must fix our eyes on Christ and run with His grace as our strength and His endurance as our example and encouragement. 

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”  1 Corinthians 9:24-27

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”  Hebrews 12:1,2