“And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12:2).

Run? What, with these knees?

When I was a child I couldn’t wait to be all “growed-up,” for some reason I can no longer fathom. The process went well enough, and I even grew to love the aging process—didn’t you?—up until about fifty years old when it was no longer fun. That half-century mark was passed a classified number of years ago.

Which brings me to today: I woke up with what was to become a day-long twinge in my oblique muscle—or what used to be my oblique muscle. (It possibly happened when I reached for the ice cream carton in a flurry of Sunday-night tradition.) Of course, this type of mystery pain is nothing new; I merely add it to my wrist ache, the crackle in my right shoulder, the pains in my pair of knees, my occasional left eyelid twitch, and so forth. Live long enough and the list of what doesn’t ache is the short one. You see the trajectory I’m on, because you’re on it too.

The total picture is this: age enough and one day you’re walking slumped with a bit of a limp and not fully swinging your right arm because of the pain, and it’s exactly like those zombie movies—with which the current culture seems inordinately fascinated—where the walking dead walk here and there and back here, so the entire plot seems to me. Except there’s one big difference. As believers in Christ, we’re not the walking dead; we’re actually the walking living, made alive by our great God: “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved” (Eph 2:4-5).

Think of it. In the grand arc of our journeys, though our bodies are failing, we have reached the pinnacle of human achievement—transferring one’s trust to Jesus—resulting in the blessing of receiving indwelling and everlasting life. And to top it off, we now get to walk out our days (or run out, if you are able) shining God’s love on others in all the days that He provides. And thus fortified, we have every reason to move enthusiastically onward, feeble knees and all, knowing we have a race to run, spiritually speaking, and a brand new body on the way. Won’t that be something?

“So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body” (1 Cor 15:42-44).

I hope this encourages you to run your race with joyful anticipation today.

Kevin Murray
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