“Today I am spent. I am too busy, I am too tired and I am not sure if there is a light at the end of the tunnel. What does that even mean? A light at the end of the tunnel? I wonder if that meant another train was coming in my direction. I feel like I am running a rat race. A race that doesn’t progress but only seems to go in circles as I slowly fall in to last place. I look around and it seems everyone is passing me by, husbands, fathers, pastors, leaders, coworkers and friends. I feel stuck.”

That was a journal entry I wrote last year before I made some decisions that would almost ruin my life. I look back now and realize the only thing that has changed for me today from 9 months ago is the race I am running. What race are you running?

In Philippians 3:13-14 the Apostle Paul, a disciple from 2000 years ago, talks about a race that involves a heavenly prize. “Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

The race that Paul runs is in Jesus. The past doesn’t effect it, and it is never ending (Heavenly). In most cases a race that never ends would seem daunting. In the race that the Paul describes, the end is death. Any other race but the heavenly race doesn’t last. I felt stuck because I wasn’t running towards heaven. I was letting my past drag me down. I compared my life to those around me instead of the prize in front of me. Stop being stuck and join a race that never ends. A race that says you can be better today than yesterday. Every step has to be in Jesus. He is the reason we don’t need to worry about the past. We have grace to grow. In Jesus we are never stuck.

Today and this week step towards heaven. You will get better and experience a never ending love in Jesus Christ. When you start the heavenly race in Jesus you have already won, in the pressing onward is where you will figure out what it means to be the victor.

#unstuck #getupnewself

Michael Winakur