Running with Purpose

I heard a new family story over the holidays. My niece, Meghan—I’ve written before of her excellence as a high school track athlete—was competing one day in the 400-meter dash. As she ran this grueling event, her mind actually wandered for a while, losing sight of her situation until at some point she snapped back to the reality of the moment. “And I realized, ‘I’m in a race!’” she recalled. Then regaining her focus, Meghan mustered a final “kick” and won. I find her story to be so unrelatable on so many levels—running fast and thinking about anything other than gasping for air, to name a couple. Yet in another sense, Meghan’s story serves as a reminder to all of us that our life here is more than going through the motions while we stride toward the finish line and what awaits us on the other side—we run this life with a very specific purpose.

And what might this purpose be? What is it that demands our all? We are here to bring glory to God. In His sermon on the mount, Jesus exhorted those gathered to hear him, “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”¹ We do this by letting Jesus shine in us and through us in all things and at all times. Wrote Paul to Corinthian believers, “Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”² The glory of God—this is why we are here; this is “the reality of the moment” on which we fix our focus.

Then how does this celestial aspiration become reality in our terrestrial existence? We align our will with God’s will in trusting union with Him, so that we “do not run aimlessly.”³ And we rely on His strength, for “by his power he [brings] to fruition [our] every desire for goodness and [our] every deed prompted by faith . . . so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in [us], and [we] in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.”⁴

We’re in a race! We run with purpose: To bring God glory. We win in Christ.

By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. John 15:8

Father, sometimes my mind wanders and my focus drifts away from You. Draw me back into the moment that I would live with purpose—to glorify You in all things by the power of Your Spirit. In Christ I pray. Amen.

¹ Matthew 5:16
² 1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV
³ 1 Corinthians 9:26 ESV
⁴ 2 Thessalonians 1:11-12