Run Your Own Race

Run Your Own Race

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful.

2 Timothy 4:7

I’ve been using the treadmill a lot lately—usually walking at a brisk pace but occasionally breaking into a full-scale run. This morning I managed to run for four minutes! I know that sounds pathetic, but as someone who hates to perspire, even a few minutes full speed ahead is an accomplishment.

Now consider three world-class female runners. Lolo Jones holds two World Indoor titles in the one-hundred-meter hurdles. Paula Radcliffe set the world record in the London Marathon in 2003. Gladys Burrill is the oldest woman ever to complete a marathon. She was ninety-two at the time.

Three women—each unique and each famous for her achievements. Now imagine what would happen if the three were to compete with each other. Lolo Jones wouldn’t come close to Paula Radcliffe’s record-setting performance in the marathon, and Paula would be left in the dust as she ran behind Lolo in the one-hundred-meter hurdles. Each woman has to run the race for which she is suited and trained.

I emphasize the obvious because many times we make the mistake of trying to run someone else’s race—comparing our lives to others’ and feeling as though we come up short. Perhaps we have children who struggle with special needs and we compare ourselves to a woman who has well-behaved, perfectly successful children. Why can’t our children be as happy or thriving as hers? Or we know someone who is constantly offered leadership positions at church or at work, and we wonder why we are not.

But God is calling us to run our own race. He knows the gifts he has given us, the circumstances we live in, the personalities we have, the unique opportunities and challenges we face. We are the only ones who can run the race he has set before us.

I like what Gladys Burrill said when asked for her advice: “Just get out there and walk or run. I like walking because you can stop and smell the roses,” she said, “but it’s a rarity that I stop.”^a With an attitude like that, it’s no wonder they call her the “Gladyator.”

Lord, help me to focus on the race you’ve set before me. Give me the peace that comes from not comparing myself to others and from being faithful to the tasks you’ve given me.

^a Mark Niesse, “Gladys Burrill, 92-Year-Old Woman, Oldest Ever to Finish a Marathon,” Huffington Post, April 4, 2011, accessed November 14, 2011, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/05/oldest-woman-to-finish-a-_n_844972.html.