Saturday night I sat in a cold and snowy Mountaineer Field and watched my favorite football team fumble, ‘miss tackle’ and ‘personal foul’ themselves into a deficit that they just could not overcome. By the time they regained their focused on football, the victory was well out of grasp.
After the game, the coaches and players both lamented their own lack of discipline. They discussed how they became focused on the wrong thing, and therefore failed at the fundamentals that win games.
Sometimes our lives our like that. I think that’s why Paul reminds us to keep our focus in Hebrew 12
12 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, 2 fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
The Mountaineers forgot about the fans that were there to rally them to victory and felt they had to muscle their own way through Oklahoma. That failed. Let’s learn from that mistake as we make it through our day today. Keep focused on the perfecter of our faith, take encouragement from those around you, and run!