The Roaring Crowd

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses . . .

Hebrews 12:1

I had joined the 219.4 million Americans tuning into NBC for their coverage of the Olympic Games in London in August 2012. And it was turning out to be the most watched Olympic Games in history! Team USA was about to run the relay race, and as the camera scanned the passionate crowd that filled the Olympic stadium that day, today’s verse flew into my mind. Did this compare with the great cloud of witnesses watching us?

Hardly! On your race, you are surrounded by a “cloud of witnesses”—all the believers who have come before us and will come after us. The passionate, roaring crowd in the stadium and watching remotely that day was but a shadow of what we experience. And more importantly, the combined passion of all those Olympic witnesses pales in comparison to the passion for us and for our salvation that motivated Jesus to die on the cross, go to the grave, and be resurrected—just for us.

It is that passion living on the inside of us that calls us to run—unstoppable—the race God has designed for us. So run your race with joy! And think of the crowd surrounding you!

Lord, today, when I remember all Your saints, let me draw from the tremendous joy and passion that drives us toward You. It all comes from You and ends with You!