Loved my Bible time this morning. I read Hebrews 12 in the Williams translation.
I like how he rendered the main clause of verse 1:
Let us ... run with endurance the race for which we are entered.
The race for which we are entered. Today we might put it this way:
Let us run with endurance the race we signed up for.
Runners get this. Every race we run is a race we signed up for. Let's face it, running a marathon, for example, is hard. But nobody is forcing you to do it. I hate it when people complain about their running. You know why? Because complaining is a lot easier than actually tackling the problem. Get over it. When you became a follower of Jesus Christ, you agreed to take up your cross and follow him. Yes, it's really really hard to do this. Deal with it.
I'm not here to tell you that the Christian life is easy. It ain't. I'm here to remind all of us that we get to do this. Since I started running I have become a completely different person. Since I accepted Christ in 1960 the change has been even more profound than that. The fact that in a couple of weeks my 70-year old body will allow me to run another marathon is not lost on me. But the fact that I'm still following the Lord Jesus after coming to know him 62 years ago is even more mind-boggling.
I get to run this race. So do you. By his grace. And for his glory.