Yesterday two of my daughters competed in an area Track Meet. It is an event that they anticipate all year long. I love listening to their conversations and the conversations of the other kids who are also competing. The attitude of these kids reminds me of the attitude that Christ wants to see in us. When the kids step up to a starting line they don’t seem to talk about who they can beat and leave behind. They instead talk about doing their best. They ask themselves if they can do better than they did the time before and if they are giving all they can. It is a blessing to see them do their best, but even more to see them encourage one another and at times encourage someone they have never met.
Hebrews 10:24-25 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
As Christians God has presented us with a goal. We are running The Good Race. This race is not for beating others to the finish, but for growing in Jesus Christ and having a rightness that only comes from God on the basis of faith.
Philipans 3:10-14 I want to know Christ, yes to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do; Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.


What a belssing to see that their goal was not to leave everyone behind, but to be sure that they themselves gave all they could in that moment.