Running in the Right Way

Last weekend I had the opportunity to officiate the SEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Nashville, TN. It was a good weekend (with the usual thunderstorm) with good competition in the events I worked (high jumps and pole vaults). And, of course, the Razorbacks won another conference championship. But the weekend also had an unusual situation in it.

The NCAA has a rule called "The Honest Effort" rule. The rule says that if an athlete does not give an honest effort in an event in which he or she is entered, then he or she is disqualified from the rest of the meet. During the course of the SEC Meet last weekend, we had an "honest effort" ruling and minor controversy regarding an athlete's participation in the high jump.

The situation made me wonder what would happen if God had an "Honest Effort Rule." What if God, once you "entered the race", let you continue or disqualified you based upon your effort? What if your continuation was determined by how hard you worked at growing? At serving? At sharing your faith? At loving others? At sacrificing? What if all of those who didn't make an honest effort at living a life pleasing to God were disqualified from the race?

Would you be in or out?

I don't want to get into a discussion of eternal security or "once saved, always saved" here. You can check out the "Ask Mike" link on this blog later this week to see a more detailed discussion of that. What I want to do here is get you thinking about how you are living your life. What kind of effort are you putting into your Christian walk - into living a life that is honoring to God?

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize." I Corinthians 9:24

"Similarly, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not receive the victor's crown unless he competes according to the rules." II Timothy 2:5