Life's Obstacle Course

So I bet that some time in your life that you have ran an obstacle course. Normally in an obstacle course there are obstacles that are easier to do than others depending on who you are. What would you think if I told you that life is an obstacle course? I was doing my devotional when this verse came up, 1 Corinthians 9:24-25.

“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. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.”

This verse talks of a race, and an obstacle course is a race, but it is a race that is more challenging than running in a straight line. Many people have this notion in their head that when we chose to follow Christ, that our race that we are running is going to be on flat ground, and it is going to be easy. But that isn’t how it is. God says that in this world we will have trials, and each of these trials is a different obstacle that we have to overcome to continue to run the race. We face obstacles every day, and to demonstrate this, I am going to look at the obstacles that appeared just yesterday in my life.

Laziness- Woke up and was rather tired so I didn’t do much but lay on the couch and watch TV. I did eventually get up, and get working around the house, but not much was done before I went to work.

Friendliness Contest- I work at a movie theater this summer, and one of the goals is to be friendly to everybody. I just wasn’t in the mood for being friendly the whole day, so when I wanted a break, I went and cleaned the restroom, a place where I don’t have to be over the top friendly.

Staying Cool- When I got home I was tired and all I really wanted to do was to relax, but my mom had made plans for us that night. I had to try to stay cool and not get angry like I would do, and in the end I had a great time out.

Laser Focus- Before bed, I had some time to myself to organize my life and get ready for college. I was pretty focus, but every once and a while, I would get off focus for a short time. But every time I would eventually get back on track.

Now of these four obstacles that I faced yesterday, I really only passed the staying cool obstacle, and that is because I have a lot of practice of trying to overcome it. I bet if we all wrote down a list of obstacles in our life, I bet we all have our own that we can’t complete yet. The thing is that the verse above not only talks about running a race to win, but it talks about training for the race. We need to identify where our weaknesses are so that way we can train and work at overcoming that obstacle. I does take work, and this will be a race that you will run your whole life, but when you run the race for God, you will get an eternal prize, one that can never be taken away from you.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for being our coach in this race we are running, and I pray that you will help me overcome the obstacle that are in my life, especially the ones that I trip up on and they cause doubt in my heart of what I am actually capable of. Thank you for loving us, even when we fail constantly at some obstacles Lord. Amen.