FOCUS,
ON THE RACE

AT THE Good Will Games in Edmonton, Canada, the Jamaican team was participating in the four-by-one hundred meter relay. The third leg for the Jamaican team had a friend who was competing in another event nearby. While the sprinter was waiting for the baton, he looked up for a moment to try to catch his friend doing his event. In the next moment, the guy running the second leg of the race came up to him with the baton and ran into him. Needless to say, the race was over for Jamaica because of the lack of focus of one of the team members. He wasn’t focusing on his race. He was looking at somebody else’s. Stop looking at everybody else’s race, and run your own race.318

[Gossip; Worldliness, Distraction of]

1 Cor. 9:24; Gal. 5:7

IN THE Olympics, one of the games involves a bunch of guys who row boats. They row their boats with their backs to the finish line. They can’t see the finish line. But at the front of the boat is the cockswain, a guy with a horn. He sits at the front of the boat, shouting instructions. “Pull, Pull! Row, Row!”

The guys in the boat keep their eyes fixed on the cockswain while they row. While they can’t see where they are going, he can. So, they fix their eyes on him. The cockswain gives them a cadence and keeps them on track.

If you don’t know where you’re headed, put your eyes on Jesus because He knows where your finish line is. He knows how to get you in the start of the race and take you to the finish line.319

[Focus]

Heb. 3:1; 12:2