Stay in Your Lane

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It’s the big race. You are signed up, suited up and limbered up, ready to run. Allow me to share a short reminder from the Apostle Paul in 2 Tim 2:5 “…If anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.”

It’s not enough to be assigned a lane and a number. You may be fast of foot, but if you violate the rules of the game you’re done. You may have filled out the proper entry forms, you may be clothed in the proper uniform, but if you take off before the pop of the gun, if you trip the person in front of you, or if you zigzag out of your lane – you, my friend, are a disqualified loser.

Here is the point Paul was trying to get across to Timothy: What is true in the athletic event is also true in the church.

You may be a regular attender, you might be a frequent giver and a consistent bible reader but on the Day when Christ returns you will not be crowned unless you have competed according to the rules.

“What rules?”, you may ask. Honesty, integrity, holiness, humility– just to name a few.
You have heard it said, “It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you play the game.”
But I say to you, “Whether you win or lose will be determined by how you play the game. And winning is everything!”

Please don’t misunderstand me. We will not earn our entrance into the Kingdom by our own integrity and holiness. (You cannot be good enough to earn your way to heaven; the Cross says that we need a sacrifice and a savior.) What I am saying is that many people mistakenly think that simply wearing church the uniform, associating with other Christian racers and hanging out around the Gatorade is all it takes to be a part of the family of God. But the truth is, this: whether or not we are one day crowned will have little to do with the fact that we ran, and everything to do with the manner in which we ran.

So, run well. Compete according to the rules of holiness, honesty, integrity and humility and you will one day receive a crown of glory.