Running Your Race With Lasting Joy

“There is an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven: a time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot; a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-3, CSB)

“When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: fear God and keep his commands, because this is for all humanity.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13, CSB)

“His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You were faithful over a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Share your master’s joy.’” (Matthew 25:21, CSB)

In the year 2000, a lesser-known pastor (at the time) named John Piper stood before a large conference audience and told a story that shaped a generation. He read from a magazine article about an older couple, Bob and Penny, who had taken early retirement. “Bob and Penny took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago,” Piper read. “Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30-foot trawler, play softball, and collect seashells.”

To the crowd, it sounded like the dream. Work hard, retire early, relax. Then Piper said the words that stopped the room cold: “That’s a tragedy. That’s a tragedy.”

He imagined the couple standing before Christ on judgment day, saying, “Lord, Lord, see my shell collection.” Then he said to everyone listening, “Don’t buy that dream… Don’t waste your life. Don’t waste it. You only have one. Risk it all for the glory of Jesus Christ.”

That story has stuck with people for decades because it names something true: it’s entirely possible to spend an entire life doing good things, and still waste it.

The book of Ecclesiastes can seem bleak at first. However, its message is not simply that life is meaningless—it’s that life is fleeting. The author writes, “There is an occasion for everything, and a time for every activity under heaven: a time to give birth and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to uproot; a time to kill and a time to heal; a time to tear down and a time to build” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-3, CSB). Every season passes. Every hour, once spent, is gone.

So what should we do with that? Not despair. Not retreat. The whole point of everything we’ve considered through this week—our limits, our calendars, our hurriedness, our drifting—comes down to one question: what are you running toward with your life that will still matter in the end?

Remember the parable from earlier this week. The one where two servants invested what they’d been given and heard their master say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful over a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Share your master’s joy” (Matthew 25:21, CSB). That is the ultimate finish line. Not applause. Not a shell collection. Not a life that merely looked productive or pious. The finish line is shared joy with the One who entrusted you with everything in the first place.

The preacher in Ecclesiastes reaches the same conclusion after searching everywhere else for meaning: “When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: fear God and keep his commands, because this is for all humanity” (Ecclesiastes 12:13, CSB).

We don’t need to make more time. We couldn’t if we tried. Instead, we need to make the most of the time we have, running toward a joy that will still be true when everything else consuming our hours has faded. Don’t waste your life. Run toward the joy that lasts—the eternal joy of Christ. Glorify and enjoy him forever.

Prayer:

Lord, at the end of this week of thinking about time, we don’t want to look back on a life full of shell collections—a life full of things that looked good but meant little in your eternal Kingdom. Fix our eyes on the joy you have set before us. Let every hour we have left run toward you, so that whatever we have done with the time you gave us, we can hear you say, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” We long to enter your joy.