It was 74 years ago last September 6th that I won a race. It was at a church picnic. All the members of the church were recent immigrants from the Netherlands, and there was a great number of children, so those in charge decided that it would be a good idea to have games for them. I was put in with the 12-to-15-year age group. I was shy and not very competitive, but I was more or less forced to take part. We all had to take off our shoes and put them in a big heap some 30 feet (ten metres) away. Some of the adults mixed them all up so that it would be hard to find our own shoes. The idea was that we were to run over, find our shoes, put them on, and run back to the starting point. Some of the parents urged on their children, giving them advice as to what to do and how to win.
When the word was given, the group of kids charged for the pile of shoes. The more fanatic ones dived in with reckless abandon. I was wearing a pair of running shoes that were well worn, not too clean, and easy to recognize. When I got to the pile of shoes, one of mine was lying outside the area where the others were madly searching. While I put it on, the other shoe came flying out, so I put it on, walked back to where we started, and I won. My reward was a chocolate bar.
Paul considered himself to be in a kind of race as well, not a foot race as I was in, but the marathon task of spreading the gospel. He travelled to many places and met all kinds of people: ordinary, well-educated, and royalty, too. He endured many difficult experiences — shipwreck, house arrest, stoning, and jail — but he never gave up, and expected a reward. He told Timothy: “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness”. (2 Timothy 4:7-8a NKJV)
He also told Timothy that he should always be ready to preach the word in season and out of season — in other words, all the time! “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” (2 Timothy 4:3-4 NKJV)
It seems like this prophecy is being fulfilled at the present time. For those of us who are involved in spreading the gospel, each of us in our own way, we, too, must fight the good fight, keep the faith, and finish the race, and then, we, too, will receive our reward.
Prayer: Our Father in heaven, we do admit that there are times when we are burdened down with the cares of the world. We pray for strength to finish the race to Your glory. We ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Copyright © 2021, by Joel Jongkind <austria67@bmts.com>, first published on the PresbyCan Daily Devotional presbycan.ca .
Meaford, Ontario, Canada
Reprinted with author’s permission
