I’m Proud of You Son!

This past weekend I experienced one of the coolest moments in my life. Late Saturday morning, I stood at the finish line of the North Carolina 2A Mid East Regional Cross Country Championship. I was looking for my son to round the final curve. The first few guys ran by. Then I noticed another coming around the curve. It appeared that he had on a black jersey. “That’s not him,” I said because his high school colors are blue and white. I was not surprised, as I knew the course was a tough one. I began looking for the next runner. However, as he came out of the shade and the sunlight hit him, the jersey was not black. It shown bright blue. “It’s him!” I cannot explain the emotions that came over me at that moment. He completed the 5K (3.1 miles) with a time that even he was astonished with.

As proud as I am of him for coming in at 6th place with the kind of course and competition he was facing, my excitement over this is not exclusively tied to where he finished in the line-up. I have watched my son struggle before and during this Cross Country season. Growing and maturing as a high school senior, he has been faced with things that have challenged him on several different levels. He has made good and not-so-good decisions along the way. However, he has faced the consequences, no matter what. He has been afraid at times, but he has pushed himself beyond his fears. I know he will most likely have more difficult times to face as he moves forward in life, but I am thoroughly thankful that he has had a glimpse of who he really is deep inside. He’s tough, passionate, strong, and courageous. Although he struggles and is afraid at times, he does not have to allow fear to dictate what he will do. Sports can be a good or bad thing for us. In this case, it was a very good experience.

Some people appear to struggle more than others, but life, for all of us, is difficult. We are faced with fears every single day. We repeatedly face rejection, failure, and all other kinds of pain and hurt. It’s easy to forget there is a purpose to all of this.

²⁴ Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. ²⁵ Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. ²⁶ So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. ²⁷ But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27, ESV)

Paul used the illustration of a race to describe how we can approach life. A race requires preparation. There will be things along the way that discourage us from practicing and from pushing forward in our training. Even though they are not enjoyable, we learn from obstacles and even our failures. We will be tempted to lose sight of the ultimate goal of finishing strong in the race. We will be tempted to believe we are not good enough. We will be tempted to forget the fact that challenges along the way only prepare and strengthen us so that we CAN finish strong. We will be tempted to give up many times, taking the easy way out. Sometimes, we will make bad decisions. We will be tempted to compare ourselves to someone in the lane next to us, instead of looking ahead to deal with what is directly in front of us. It all is a part of the race.

We must stay confident, but to do this, we need to know and believe the truth about our coach. Is He fair? Is He supportive? Is He training us properly? Has He given us all the tools we need to finish the race well? The answers to these questions are “yes”. God has not set us up for failure. He has a plan for us that will be carried out successfully. Paul makes mention of not running aimlessly. Faith keeps us focused. Trusting God every step of the way is like a runner following his daily schedule of running, cross-training, eating a healthy diet, and getting plenty of rest in preparation for the big race. And like my son, we may very well be astonished at how strong we finish. And then we will hear the words we’ve either knowingly or unknowingly been waiting to hear from our Father for a long time: “I’m proud of you son/daughter!”.