I don’t know if it is common with older people, but I spend a lot of time now reminiscing. I don’t do that negatively; it’s more like reading a history book – just remembering and enjoying the memories. I mostly do that while looking at the pictures on my iPad. Today is one of my grandkids’ 18th birthday, and I think, how is that possible?! I have also been thinking about my old friend Jack Knight, who passed away this past week; he was 97. I looked it up on Google and saw that only one in one thousand live that long. In the Bible, life is likened to a race, with a starting line and a finish line.

Some people run a 100 yards, and others run a marathon. Jack ran an ultramarathon. The primary emphasis in the Bible on running the race of life is to run it with your eye on the finish line, not on the sidelines. Run it with endurance; don’t sit down. Walking is okay, taking a drink is OK, but keep moving and finish well. One of the problems that many people have, especially young people, is that at the beginning of their race, they take detours off the main route. When you are young, it seems like the finish line is so far away that a few detours won’t make that much difference, but they do. So, what if you have made some major detours? What now? Paul understood that issue. He didn’t start running the race until he was well into life. His basic response was, Make this the first day of your race and run it right from here to the finish line. I will be 77 in 18 days, 20 years younger than Jack. If I live to be that old, I have a lot more running to do. I will probably walk a lot.

Philippians 3:12-14 Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

 Hebrews 12:1-2 let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.