RUNNING THE RACE
Many of you know that I have fairly poor eyesight. However, my eyesight today is far better than it was when I was a child. The Lord has given me much better eyesight today than I have ever had I my life. When I was a kid, however, my eyesight was terrible.
So as I was describing earlier, I ran the 100-yard dash in track. Now, I could not see the finish line when I was running the 100. When I ran the race, what I would do is start, and run as fast as I possibly could; I ran as hard as I could until I saw the finish line. My eyesight was so poor, that by the time I saw the finish line, the race was over. So I would just run all out until I saw the finish line.
Then, in my senior year, I got contact lenses, and my problems began.
I could now see the finish line from the starting blocks with my contact lenses in. See, before I got contact lenses I was essentially running in the dark because my eyesight was so poor. I had to relearn how to run. Whereas before I ran like a wild man I the dark, I had to learn to look forward, and concentrate on the finish line. I needed to keep my eye on that finish line to run a productive race.
In our spiritual life, we are to neither run wild without direction, like a man running with poor eyesight, nor are we to look back at a past we cannot change, instead we are to live our life forward.