It’s almost the end. I’ve begun to count the days. each day bringing me closer to the next, bringing me closer to the last. the person i was month one, the energy i had month one, wouldn’t allow such thoughts to cross my mind. now don’t get me wrong, I’m not fed up with the race. the race is far from over for me. But every morning i sit up in my bed and stare this lie in the face: the lie that it’s okay to lay back down, roll back over and give up because ‘you’re basically done’. the bible talks about ‘running the race with endurance’. now, the ‘race’ referenced is our life, but throughout our life we’re given different legs to run. each leg of the grand race is different. it has different terrain, different climates, and different competitors. right now, I’m nearing the end of this leg of my race, and the next mile marker, the next rest stop along the way, looks really really inviting. looking at the end of my trip in this light, you’d think it’d be just to muster my strength and throw down one final all-out sprint to thrust my aching body across the finish line, and then bask in all the glory that is America and home, and that’s what all the leadership staff on this trip keep packing into our brains.
‘finish well’.
‘don’t go home wishing you had done more at the end’.
‘don’t have regrets’.
‘have the energy you had month one’.
And all that is wonderful. it needs to be said and it’s encouraging to hear. i mean, who likes regrets? Regrets aren’t good, but they shape us. they drive us. so i am choosing to not fear regret. i also don’t look toward regret and i don’t look back at it. it just challenges me, provokes a thought, grows me in to whatever God is trying to teach me through it. Because nothing holds us. nothing takes us captive. Christ died so we could be set free from sin and death and damnation. We live in that freedom, and we don’t carry any of our crap around with us. And that freedom doesn’t ask anything of you; you can’t do anything to earn the freedom that comes with knowing christ. so if you’re on the race, going to be on the race, or if you’re anyone who does anything for anyone else or with anyone else at all, don’t fear regret. understand that it will come, talk to God about it when it does, and figure out what He wants you to learn from it, then move on. that lesson will probably have a place in your testimony, and it should. because christ used that part of your story to point you and the people you choose to share it with back to the Gospel. He redeemed it; He redeemed you.
Now all that about regret and redemption and freedom was a bit of a tangent and a side thought that just developed in my head, probably from the Lord, and got me pretty off topic from what i had originally intended to write about. Nonetheless, it’s pretty applicable to my life right now and it may be to yours, so take it as you please. Back to my original thought.
Endurance. I was talking about running this last bit of this leg of my race(life) and how everyone around me is encouraging myself and my fellow team members to ‘finish well’. Finishing something is great, but it’s the work you put in to get there that matters; It’s the journey which you remember. I know that’s what everyone means when they talk about finishing well, but getting yourself there, what you do along the way, isn’t stressed enough, or laid out plainly enough. Now, I’m very blessed to have some wise people in my life and i had asked them a little while ago to just share some devotionals with me, and I wasn’t entirely specific with what I had in mind. What I found with all of them is that they pertained to this subject, in one way or another. Funny how God speaks to people like that because He wants to use them to tell you what you need to hear. And so, to my dad, Tyler, Rob, and Joe, thank you. My take away from everything they shared, and what i intend to apply to the end of my race, is this: wake up every morning, and first strap on the armor of God. Meaning feed yourself with his Word and get down on your knees and prepare yourself for the day ahead. Second, lay aside every weight and sin which so easily ensures us, and stand firm in the One Spirit, striving for the Gospel. Lastly, place both feet in love, and walk in love. Because love is everything.
So, instead of thrusting myself toward the end, I would rather instead work on the things that are going to get me there. Day to day. One day at a time. So here’s to that. And thanks be to God for grace and understanding and love.
Thank you for reading.
Jared Celosse
