PRAISE & PRAYER PROMPT ••• On Tuesday night, I went to visit my son and hang out with him a bit.
As is the norm, we spent some time with him showing me weird videos he’s found on YouTube.
I don’t know where he finds some of these things, but this one was “special.”
Five people in brightly colored unitards and bare feet and their goal was to climb ice-coated stairs in order to reach a treasure chest at the top.
The first one to make it was the winner.
It was a mass of chaos as players lost their footing and took out their competition as they slid back down the icy steps.
Who on earth comes up with this stuff?!
But apparently, it’s a real competition somewhere…I’m guessing Japan.
There was an English-speaking narrator, but I’m not sure what language the subtitles were in.
After watching a couple of these “competitions,” my belief that humankind can do colossally stupid things for the sake of entertainment and attention was firmly reinforced.
But as I’ve thought about it some more, I kind of feel like that competition is a reflection of us all.
We are all trying to reach a goal.
We want to race to the top, but sometimes, we lose our footing and fall down.
Or someone else knocks us down.
We’re afraid if we don’t get there first, we’ll miss out.
Paul wrote an analogy about a race.
1 Corinthians 9:24-25 says, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.”
In this “game of life,” there’s no need to race against others.
Our individual goal should be to focus on the race God has planned for each of us so that we can do as Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 4:7, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
It’s not about beating others, it’s about doing what we are called to do.
Today, as you pray, thank God for His challenge to you.
Ask the Holy Spirit to help you sustain and run steady.
Ask Him to help you be focused and not distracted.
But ask Him to let you be an encourager for others as they run their own races.
