Go for Gold

The end affects how we live now

With 2024 Olympics behind us and the next Olympics four years away, it won’t be long before Olympians start training in preparation for 2028.

A competition four years ahead in 2028 affects what they do today in late 2024. Unbelievable. Four years of their lives are mapped out, determining their lives towards that goal, that end. Their end affects now. Our end affects how we live now.

Two weeks ago, we looked at the various ways the New Testament uses the race metaphor to help us run our Christian race from self-control to, most importantly, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith (Heb 12:1- 3).

This week, I want to provide some further motivation for running the Christian race because it is more like a marathon than a sprint, and so we need continual encouragement to keep going. Earlier in the letter of Hebrews, the author encourages Christians to keep meeting together (10:24-25), and while we may have heard this exhortation a few times, I want to focus on the last phrase ‘and all the more as you see The Day approaching’. Part of why we meet together is in view of the end, the Day, Christ’s return in judgment, and to make all things new. The end affects how we live now. There is a saying, “Too heavenly-minded to be any earthly good”. This can’t be more far from the truth. As Christians, the more heavenly-minded, the more earthly good we will be. The end affects how we live now. Just as Olympians train four years in advance, so too Christians live now in view of Christ’s return and Christ’s return shapes how we live now.

Rev. Craig McCorkindale