How Does It All Come Together? Part Three: Hands and Feet

Background Passage: Romans 4:1-25; 10:1-13; Hebrews 11:1-12:2
Today’s Focal Passage: Hebrews 12:1-2

1 Therefore since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and run with endurance the race that lies before us, 2 keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross and despised the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of God's throne.


In 1983, the world was stunned when Cliff Young, a 61 year old potato farmer, entered Australia’s 875 kilometer (543.7 mile) endurance race from Sydney to Melbourne. They were even more surprised when he won. Not only did Cliff win the race, he changed the way it was run. Previously, runners would run 18 hour days and sleep 6 hour nights for more than 5 days to complete the race. Cliff didn’t know this, so he simply ran all day and all night finishing the race in a record breaking 5 days, 15 hours and 4 minutes, 9 hours shy of the previous race record. Since Cliff’s victory, all subsequent winners have run just like he did, all day and all night.

Racing is an interesting metaphor. A race has a clear starting point and a finishing line. For us, life is that way. For the writer of Hebrews, the spectators weren’t merely men and women who enjoyed a good run, they were those who had gone before us and set the course.

In any race, good runners will tell you not to focus on the other runners or the turns in the track, but to keep your eyes fixed on the finish line and the prize on the other side. For us, the prize is Jesus. He is the both the author and perfecter [read “completion”] of our faith who won the race and enjoyed the prize of his Father’s right hand. Legend says that Cliff Young never kept a prize for any of the races he won, including the 10k awarded to him after winning the Sydney to Melbourne race. Cliff said he never did it for the prizes. It’s as if he had a bigger picture in mind. Keeping our eyes on Jesus not only wins us the race, but it keeps the bigger picture present in our minds of why we run in the first place.

Runners, take your mark. Get set. Go!
(To read more about Cliff Young’s story, visit: http://www.elitefeet.com/the-legend-of-cliff-young-the-61-year-old-farmer-that-won-the-worlds-toughest-race)