You stretch your calf muscles one last time and then bounce up and down to test the “pep in your step” as you stand at the starting line. You are as ready as ready gets. You have hours of training behind you and self-discipline deep within you. You are shod with shoes (the cost of half a week’s worth of work) on your feet. You are attired just right for the 500-yard run. You secretly hope to break a personal record, and if truth be told, you are guilty of breathing a quick prayer for star alignment that will grace you with the title of “Winner.”
The moment arrives. You hear, “Ready,” followed by “Set,” and then the final syllables giving you permission to showcase yourself: “Go!” Like an impatient racehorse, you spring forward. For a quick second, you think of Atalanta, the Greek goddess of running, and like her, you give it all you’ve got in way of speed, grit, and endurance for the next 1.5 – 2 minutes.
Sound familiar to any of you runners out there?
What about you non-runners? Count you out. Hold on, not so fast. What if this article is about running – but not with your feet so much? Could I interest you to read a little further? What if it’s about running in a way that doesn’t involve your legs as much as your direction? Your shoes as much as your soul? Your attire as much as heart desire?
Interested in that kind of running?
This article is about hearing and embracing the words, “Ready, Set, Live!” It’s also about hearing and embracing the words, “Ready, Set, Die!”
Ever heard these dark side chants: “Ready, Set, resent!” “Ready, Set, fuel that fire of anger!” “Ready, Set, toss kindness to the wind and speak what you really feel!” “Ready, Set, just this once.” They come from the nastiest of ones who seeks to mess up our running or altogether get us speeding down a track going completely the wrong way.
The first half of my message is this: determinedly choose (and then stand resolutely by your choice): Ready, Set, Live! Right now. Not tomorrow. Not when God gives you something you want. Now. This moment. This very day. This hour. This minute. This second. Be intentional about living. Be deliberate about making your life – and the lives of others – good. Foster goodness. Become good. Do good. Be resolutely diligent about daily subduing Satan (you have the promise of God’s power if you will pay the price to access it) so you can consistently mollify his influence in your life. Nobody said it better than James: “…Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7)
In another breath, the second half of my message is this: determinedly choose (and then stand resolutely by your choice): Ready, Set, Die! Right now. This moment. This very day. This hour. This minute. This second. Live. Yes, please do live. But be ready to die. When the Head timekeeper motions you off the track, be both qualified and prepared to receive a rich eternal reward, having successfully run “the race that (was) set before (you).” (Hebrews 12: 1)
So even if you don’t run – nope not even when you are being chased – remember that in the race that counts the most, we all are required to run first with our devoted hearts and souls.
Unto all the world: I conclude where I began. You and I, both runner and non-runner, stand at the starting line. Eying the finish line, we see it come into focus better as we embrace what we didn’t fully hear with our ears but wholly with our hearts: ‘Ready, Set, Live! Ready, Set, Die!” And we are off and running.