Can You Believe?
The race is not to the swift…
Nor the battle to the strong…
It is not about winning or losing…
It is about finishing the race…
So let us run with perseverance…
For His love never fails us…
God has always had a good plan for all my adversities. This doesn't mean I haven't gone through times of frustration and disappointment and doubt. But through all of the sickness and perceived failures over the last 5 years… at every turn God has given me the hope and strength to press on. Critics tell me I am wasting my time, that I could never do what I have set out to do. Maybe they are right, maybe they are not; only God knows. I have realized that the end result doesn't matter, but that the journey does matter. Despite all the opposition I have faced, God has always strengthened me to continue, to finish the race. And I believe my purpose in life is to therefore encourage others to persevere in their God-given goals.
I recently heard Tom Watson's 1993 Ryder Cup winning speech, when
he led the Americans to capture the Ryder Cup trophy. He used a quote
from Theodore Roosevelt's 1910 speech "The Man in the Arena". It inspired me
in that he was effectively praising and encouraging both winning and losing
teams through this speech, and that being part of the race is what really counts.
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles,
or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man
who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who
strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort
without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows
great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who
at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst,
if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those
cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat." Theodore Roosevelt, 1910
God's love never fails us. I am so very thankful for this blessing, but more importantly,
I am thankful for this lifelong journey and relationship I and anyone can have in Jesus Christ.
- Izzy, October 2010
