Finishing The Race

"I have finished the race." 2 Timothy 4:7

When I read Ezekiel 18 and hear God say, "When a righteous person turns away from his righteousness and does injustice, he shall die for it" (Ezekiel 18:26), it makes me think of how important it is to finish the race set out before us.  In races from 5Ks to marathons people quit in the middle.  I do not want to quit in the middle.  I want to continue to run for Jesus Christ.  I want to FINISH.

For those of us who understand how hard a marathon can be we also understand how hard living for Jesus can be, and that different decades, like different mile markers, bring different challenges.  The challenges of my teenage years are different than the challenges of parenting teenagers and I will face new and unknown challenges that those older than me have faced.

In our culture youth is over-emphasized to the point of being told I look old is a putdown (in other cultures this is not a putdown).  In a marathon, the last part, although the hardest, is often the most important and the most memorable.

Here is the idea:  Look at your life as a marathon so that you can plot your age and know what mile marker you are at.  If you take 26.2 times 4 you get 104.8.  Most people do not live that long, and yet some live longer.  For those who do not live that long, they either hit the wall or they were taken up in a chariot of fire.  For those who live longer, the race director thought it best to make the marathon a little longer than 26.2.

At 38, I am at mile 9.5.  Wow!  I am just getting started and a lot of running is left.  I must continue to stay focused and learn new things along the way.  I may feel good now, but a day may come when I do not feel this way.  10 miles down the road (40 years) I may be tired.  Will I finish the race?

18 years old                                      4.5 miles
21 years old                                      5.222 miles
30 years old                                      7.5 miles
40 years old                                      10 miles
50 years old                                       12.5miles
52 years 4 months 24 days                13.1 miles
60 years old                                       15 miles
70 years old                                       17.5 miles
80 years old                                       20 miles
90 years old                                       22.5 miles
100 years old                                     25 miles
104 years 9 months 18 days              26.2 miles  (If you are still alive keep going!!!!!)

The Paracletes of Boston

Paraclete is a New Testament term, and therefore a old Greek word that is used five times in the Bible.  It is used in John 14:16, 26; 15:26; 16:7 and 1 John 2:1.  The first reference in John 14:16 Jesus says, "I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Paraclete, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of Truth. . ."  And so from this first reference it seems that there is more than one Paraclete for Jesus to speak of another one.  In fact, all four references in John are references to the Holy Spirit being the Paraclete, while the reference in 1 John is to Jesus being the Paraclete.
But what is a paraclete?  This has challenged translators for some time.  Many preachers point out that the Greek word is a sort of compound word meaning "called beside."  And so a paraclete is someone who is called to be beside someone else, as Jesus and the Holy Spirit were called by the Father to be beside us.  The translations range from Helper, Advocate, Comforter, Counselor, Paraclete, Encourager, and more I assume in the decades to come.  But it seems that no word has fit just right.
I propose a meaning from the marathon running world, especially for those who have run or cheered on those who run marathons.
I have run five marathons and every single one was very hard, even though I ran cross country and track in college.  I always wanted to qualify for the Boston Marathon but have not done that yet.  I want to share with you one of the people in my life who was a paraclete to me, in that she was called to be beside me, to encourage me, comfort me, and exhort me to the finish line.  I was on pace to qualify for Boston, and then in the last few miles of a marathon the human body starts to tell the human why the first man who ran a marathon to tell of the war died on the spot.  The body weakens.  The mind weakens.  All those glorious thoughts of qualifying or even finishing are replaced by thoughts of quitting.  You begin not to care at all about that finish line.  Now all determination has turned into determination to quit.
Then the paracletes come in.  These are the people who will do anything they have to do to make sure you get to the finish line.  They will encourage you, tell you to keep going, tell you you are almost there, and they will even run with you.
My wife was there at 24 miles, right when I almost collapsed to the ground.  I held onto her as the charlie horse overtook all my strength.  She let me lean onto her.  After some time she walked with me, and then she began to run with me for the last two miles, even though she was in jeans.  She was called to be beside me.
How crucial was my wife to me finishing that marathon?  Only a marathon runner can truly know, but I know that it was the only way I was going to finish.
A paraclete is a person who not only encourages their mom, dad, brother, sister, husband, wife, son, or daughter in the months and months of training, but also sets aside whole weekends for the sole purpose of coming alongside another person to encourage them to the finish line, to cheer them on, to tell them to keep going.  A marathon is 26.2 miles.  I have often told people that the first 26 miles are easy, its that last point 2 that is so so hard.  That is why all of the paracletes cheer on their runners at the last point 2 of the marathon.
A marathon paraclete, a person who cheers on their runner that last point 2 of the marathon, is a rare person.
A life paraclete, a person who cheers on another person to keep going, "you're looking good" (when you look awful), who runs with you in jeans, who says, "there's the finish line," is a rare person.
How many people in your life have told you to keep going when you wanted to quit?  How many people have told you to keep pressing on to the finish line, the prize of Jesus Christ?  Not very many.  Few are the paracletes of the world, gifts from the Father, full of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, who would be called beside another.
The Evil One, not the Bin Ladens or McVeighs. but Satan, the Devil - he is threatened by these paracletes.  Those paracletes cheering on the side of the road are the kingdom of heaven come down to earth.  So it is no wonder to me why Satan, who steals, kills, and destroys, would want to take out the people cheering at Boston, paracletes for their runners.  He also wants to take out paracletes who are called beside us to encourage us toward Christ, to tell us to keep running.
But he has only an empty power, for Christ killed death, and so those paracletes in Christ still encourage us along with the whole cloud of witnesses, knowing that their cheering is not in vain, no but is shows even more how important it is for people to take their place, to be called beside people, to be a Jesus Christ person, a Holy Spirit person, a paraclete.
May Satan feel threatened by how we encourage one another today all over the world as the Body of Christ.  And may our Father in heaven continue to remind us that all Satan's attacks are spoiled, and that he only has an empty power.
What encouraging word will you say to those who are running by in your life today?