When I played basketball in high school the conditioning workout I dreaded the most was “beach day.”
Maybe it sounds fun to you:“Let’s go to the beach and play around!” But beach day for our basketball team meant going to the nearby Indiana Dunes and running up Mount Baldy, a 125-foot-tall sand dune. Running in sand is no fun, running up a 125-foot sand dune is really no fun!
The first run was hard—we’d be straining to finish all the way to the top—and the second run was brutal. The third run up, well, it wasn’t pretty!
We would be slipping, we’d be flopping down on the slope, sometimes even sliding backwards into our teammates, but our coaches would keep urging us upward and we’d know at the top was our prize: a chance to rest and to slide back down and cool off in Lake Michigan.
Paul speaks of straining to finish the race. He was putting everything he had into finishing his life focused on the hope God had set before him. He didn’t know if Jesus would come again before he died or after, but his hope was the eternity we all have to look forward to, the prize of a life with God.
For reflection:
- As you look to the end of your life, what aspect of eternity motivates you the most? How does looking forward with hope help you live your life today well?
by Jim Caler
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