PODCAST
With The End In Sight
December 3rd, 2010
Philippians 3:2-21
“Even at a distance, I can already hear the cheering, but it still seems impossibly far away. Again and again, I visualize crossing the finish line, but there are still 300 meters to go. I think people have already spotted me; I can hear them cheering and applauding. Now it is just 100 meters to the finish line. My name is announced over the loud speaker, and I put on a final spurt to cross the timing mats and have a medal thrown around my neck.”* This is the way a runner described finishing her first full marathon. The ability to reach the goal she credits to training and the festive, cheering crowds along the route.
Like some distance runners, Paul had trouble with “dogs” (v. 2), including people who felt he wasn’t qualified. There was much he had to toss aside like rubbish to reach his spiritual goal. At the end, there will be no gold medal–but there will be a crown.
*Bjarke Vestesen, “A Fairy Tale Marathon,” Distance Running (Jan-Mar 2008, pp. 22-23).
