Wednesday, January 5
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us.
—Hebrews 12:1
We come to this moment in our lives resting upon a great foundation of two thousand years. Two thousand years of “witnesses,” people who have found strength in faith and who have been willing to sacrifice and even suffer for their belief in God in Christ.
It is an amazing record and one that offers us strength of spirit. From the earliest Christians who went to their deaths rather than renounce their faith, to those in later times who found comfort in the words and actions of Jesus, to the oppressed of every era who have known where to turn for succor, we stand on the shoulders of all of those who have gone before.
They show us what we need. Life brings lots of joy, but there are also valleys—times of sadness, fear, illness, death. There is nothing in this world that can help us through those times like a divine spirit within. We have this “race set before us”—that is, a certain time span when we are on the earth.
God calls us to run our “race” in such a way that things are a bit better for our having been here. It is not always easy. But we are strengthened by God’s nurture every time we help someone else, every time we pray, every time we open up and are enriched by the company of others.
God yearns to love us and fill us up with that love. May this new year be a time in your life during which this happens again and again, more than ever before!
Lord God, open my heart and make my life one which will be part of the “foundation” for future believers. Amen.
These Signposts originally appeared on explorefaith in 2007.
