I’ll admit it. I hate running. I know many people enjoy it but I never liked it. I played baseball and football growing up, and running was punishment for messing up, not something you did for fun. But I’ll also be the first to tell you that if I see a crowd of people running as fast as they can, I’m going to take off running too and ask questions later. 2020 has taught me that things you never expect can and will happen. I won’t be the one waiting around to see what everyone was running from.

I’d like to think that it’s a pretty logical response in the short term. After all, I’m not trying to be any bear’s midafternoon snack. At some point though, we need to stop running and assess the situation. We need to figure out if the crowd is running from something or to something. We need to know if that something we are running to is really worth the effort.

I think a lot of us took off running when we graduated high school or college. We saw the crowd running. We saw everyone’s busy lives and we jumped in with two feet as well. We filled our schedules with everything imaginable, worked as hard as we could at our jobs, and accumulated just about everything we could trying to keep up with others. My question to you is, are you still running? What are you running to? Where is the finish line?

The Corinthians were runners. When the Apostle Paul wrote to them, he knew their culture well. He saw their striving. They were sprinting as fast as they could. The Corinthians valued excellence over seemingly all else. They brought each other to the gentile court system because they refused to give in or lose. They had to win.

They desired the highest spiritual gifts and those deemed not as important were not cared about. The Corinthians sought to follow the best church leader, to be the wisest, to be rich, to reign over others, to be seen as the strongest believer through what they were able to eat, and to be able to boast from their position of excellence.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians instructing them, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore, I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.”

Paul was telling them that he saw their running but they weren’t running for the prize that matters. They were running but they ran aimlessly. They were exuding all kinds of effort striving for their goals but their goals simply did not matter in the context of eternity.

We too, as a society, value striving for excellence. To be the best is to be admired and respected and along with it often comes power and fame. We overwork, undervacation, and struggle to separate ourselves from business emails and phone calls. To disconnect temporarily to focus on personal relationships is to allow someone else the opportunity to step in to your place and that simply is not a risk worth taking to many.

We strive for wealth, power, fame, respect and influence with a work ethic that is very often admirable but we too often run the race aimlessly, not focused on the eternal crown that is being offered to us. Take time this week to pause and assess. Where are you running to? Who are you running to?