Evotions, Family, Running

Seeing “there” isn’t the same as being “there”

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Genesis 22:4
On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. (NCV)

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from running in races, it’s that seeing the finish line is not the same as being finished. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, because once the finish line is seen, the mind begins to play any number of tricks on the runner, and it often has everything to do with how far away the end is when you first see it. Let me explain…

If I’m at the end of a marathon and my body is totally spent, turning a corner and seeing the finish line 50 feet away makes me run faster immediately because I can see that I’m almost there. But if I round that same corner and see the finish line at the end of another half mile or so of running, my mind will tell me to slow down. Crazy, isn’t it? Seeing the end can sometimes be the last temptation to let up, power down, or mail it in. “What good’s it gonna do you to kill yourself now? It’s still so far away and you are so tired, and you can just walk the rest of the way anyway.”

I have never walked across a finish line, but I have been tempted many times to walk in sight of it, and that fact alone makes me respect the man that Abraham was. After a weary journey, he looked up and saw the goal “in the distance” and he finished his journey well. He didn’t blink, hesitate, consider, or wonder. He just kept walking until he finally arrived at “the place.”

What about us? Many of us have been on long journeys. We have big dreams, and have seen incredible visions of what God has planned in our lives. For me and my family, we know He has great plans for the area in which we live, and have been “all in” on the journey toward “the place” for a number of years. We have friends who are walking with us, and I believe that 2011 will be the year that we suddenly, on the third day, look up and see the place in the distance.

And when we do – when we see the finish line still a bit farther ahead of us than we really want to go – I pray that we steel our minds and spirits and run faithfully towards it. Like a marathoner who has given it all, I am believing for the Lord to give us a burst of faith and belief that will carry us to “the place” where His will is accomplished in our willing sacrifice.

Oh, what a place of rejoicing that will be!

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January 1, 2011by Paul Jenkins
Written by Paul Jenkins
Paul Jenkins is lead pastor of The Gathering, a community church located in beautiful downtown Albemarle, North Carolina. He's the author of God is My Air Traffic Controller and My Name's Not Lou. Paul is passionate about his wife, his 3 children, running, reading, coaching, leading people who are following Jesus, Swedish Fish and the Carolina Panthers.