Let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us. – Hebrews 12:1
When you’re a sophomore in high school and a runner on the track team’s mile relay, a District Track Meet is a big deal. A win, or even a place in the top four positions could have given us (especially me) an automatic letter in track. I could hardly wait to get my high school letter jacket even if it meant wearing it in June in Florida.
They made me keeper of the vineyard, but my own vineyard I did not keep. – Song of Solomon 1:6
It’s the middle of the night on Monday morning, “o’dark-thirty” some people call it. The birds are up, the crickets are up, the frogs are up, I am up – those higher on the life chain, and those with greater intelligence, are still asleep. The birds, crickets, and frogs are just doing what comes naturally. I’m committing the unnatural – trying to cram twenty-six hours of activity into a twenty-four hour day.
Let us not love in word or speech but in deed and truth. – 1 John 3:18
You probably can look at me and see that I’m not big on physical fighting. Actually, this wasn’t always the case. There was a time when I was convinced that the only way to resolve a disagreement was to fight it out. In fact, I still have a crooked bone in my right hand, a remnant of a cracked bone from a fistfight during my early teenage years.
Come away by yourselves to a lonely place, and rest awhile. – Mark 6:30