Running a Good Race: when things cut in

You were running a good race. Who cut in on you?

 Galatians 5:7

So how’s your 2020 playing out? I confess to being an Olympic junkie, so when Tokyo was cancelled this summer, my sole consolation was the reruns of previous highlights. This caught my eye: Rio 2016, just over 3000 meters into a semifinal of the women’s 5K, USA’s Abbey D’Agostino clips the heel of Nikki Hamblin of New Zealand and both runners fall to the track. Dazed after her tumble Hamblin lay there in tears. She had been running a good race; now all hopes of gold were dashed. 

Paul does not have a palm branch (the Olympic gold of his day*) in mind when he addresses the good race his Galatian friends used to be running. He is seriously concerned about the false teachers who have cut in on their chance to win the prize for which God has called (all believers) heavenward in Christ Jesus (Philippians 3:14). The Holman online commentary has this to say about that prize: “(Paul) wants to hear God call his name and summon him to the victory stand, where he will meet Jesus face-to-face and know him in perfect intimacy.” 

In this postmodern world we live in, the unbelieving are deliberately cutting in on the good race we are running, even as in Paul’s time. If they can’t stop our meeting Jesus in eternity, they will do their best to keep us from a growing intimacy with Him now.

Thankfully there is no need for the story to end with us flat on our faces in the dust. It did not end that way for Nikki Hamblin in 2016. Abbey crouched down, helped her up, and urged her on. And on they ran together, for a few meters anyways when Agostino went down on all fours. Now it was Hamblin’s turn to encourage Abbey, who insisted Nikki run ahead. Not one to give up, Abbey persisted despite a torn anterior cruciate and meniscus, to be met at the finish line with a hug and a smile from her new friend. 

It struck me ladies, this is the spirit of the race to the finish line that we all are running. Things, deliberate or not, will trip us up from time to time. If we are in the good race, those running alongside will happily pick us up and urge us on. And Jesus Himself will meet us at the tape with a grin.  

Nancy P

*IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, Keener, p.564