In our Formula One lifestyle we are orientated to be prepared to take every turn in the road at life-threatening speed and be ready to overtake! We are flooded by books, TV, films, and myriads of direct and indirect messages that tells us to step up the pace or be left behind. I always thought that it did not affect me - I was invincible!
To my utter disapointment I realised the opposite. We picture that there are people out there that were born that way. By 'that way' I mean they were born with a remote in their hand, a mobile fone in the other, and a overpowering desire to prove themselves. We are so fortunate not to be like that! I discovered that within me lies potential - for great things and for terrible things. None of us just wake up one day and realise that we are now that dark figure hiding away somewhere finding delight in all the world has to offer yet never finding de-light (literally and figuratively).
Disgusted, I realised that slowly but surely I was starting to place my hope in things that will most definately disapoint. My desire was after that which does not fulfil. I had to be brutaly honest and ask myself 'what do I desire' and because of this 'where am I heading'? Simple, yet difficult; because you need to become quiet - almost detached. This is not about taking a pit-stop. This is about parking the car and getting out of the race because the finish line could in fact be the end of the line. I thought I was OK just taking the pit-stop every now and again - refueling, new tyres, wipe the helmet - there we go! Now everything is the way it should be and this lap is going to be the best yet. I'll pass everyone by, leave them in the dust. Oh man I got excited!
...But excited about what?!
I felt defeated, ashamed, even lost. This life is not about a race - it is most definately a journey in which we have the pleasant privelage of stopping, helping others stop, and enjoying that which lies behind (the good and the bad), where we are now (the good and the bad), and where we are going (yip, you guessed it THE GOOD AND THE BAD). I am not a masochist but life will have challenges and our character is determined by how we react to the challenges.
In formula one they race around a track - they go NOWHERE. When you take a journey - by car, boat, plane, truck, etc. the destination becomes sweeter. Sweeter because you take the time to taste life with those around you. And most importantly you grow. You become more - you don't do more. The journey becomes the destination.
I am therefore gladly training for defeat.
5 comments:
All of this is true. Thus I am more in kind of 4x4 race with less or almost no limits such as a F1 track.
Felt you got something there bro. Yeh I think meaning lies within the purpose of the universe - love. Not any kind of love, but the love demonstrated by Jesus Christ when he - believed in His purpose and committed his life to fulfill that purpose no matter what. Because we did not create ourself we can just as well stop creating lives that evolve around ourself. It is only if we realize that we were created with an eternal purpose that our life start making sense. Traveling to and fro might seem like we did not move anywhere, but if that was the way we were suppose to work it has meaning. If I was an airplane, I might enjoy racing up and down a racing track, but if I do not learn that I were created to fly I will miss a great deal of my life. We should push ourself to our limits to discover our purpose, that does not mean racing against each other, but rather discovering our potential as Jesus discovered His by walking out what He knew to be true and that is that God love us.
Thank goodness that we have the best of both realities in Christ: both race and journey, where the race and the journey is the destination. We are in a race, but it is not a race of mind-numbing nowhere-ness, like the formula one car which goes 500 kilometers in a day but never leaves the stadium. We have a glorious race to run, yet the victory is already won by Him who at the finish line of His earthly race wore a Crown of Thorns as His Laurel Wreath. We must Run the Race. If we do not run, there is no evidence that we ever were Chosen by the Way as an athlete, and thus we are disqualified from the starting line. But the Prize is the Way; the Prize is the Journey; the Prize is the Pilgrimage. And the Way is a Person: Yeshua the Messiah, God of God, the Son of Man.
Yeshua says of Himself: “I AM [that is, YHWY] the Way.”
The journey is a Person.
The apostle says it in a couple of ways:
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin with clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfector of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated and the right hand of the throne of God.”
At the end of his earthly days, the same apostle writes, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
And David says it this way, “Your statutes have been my Songs in the house of my pilgrimage.”
We have a race to run. A glorious race. But the race is not around endless circles of despairing futility. It is a race run for the most precious prize in the universe: God Himself in and through the Person of Christ. This prize is so precious, unfathomable, and unsearchable that the journey will take an endless period of time. Those who do not run in this life, will certainly be cast out forever. Why should one think that they would want to run for eternity when one cannot run for the 100 meters of this life. But this endless period will not be like a formula one car destined never to go one kilometer of distance outside the stadium. It is an endless period of unceasing joy in the pursuit of the endless glories of God. For each year will be like a drop of rain in the ocean of His vastness, and each year our joy will be made more full.
So the Hymnist sings of that future reality:
When we've been here ten thousand years...
bright shining as the sun.
We've no less days to sing God's praise...
then when we've first begun.
the valuable information you presented do help the research for our company, appreaciate that.
- Lucas
Lucas
I am glad I could help. I would be interested to know exactly how so that I can continue adding value. Would you be son kind as to give me some more detailed feedback.
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