I was awakened to see the dawn this morning. Sparkle and I went outside by the pool and watched as the sun that we couldn’t see turned the sky a very beautiful pink and blue. Sparkle is our little girl… See her? She’s sunbathing by the pool. 
She would rather sunbath than walk or swim. So would I. So getting up early to see the dawn is easy for us because we rest in it. Sometimes running in a race means looking forward to the finish line, a time when we can rest. Does life seem like one long race to you? Many people believe that we just have to persevere and endure life. They call life the rat race.
But there are some of us who refuse to participate in the that race.
We can chose what race to enter. There are many races in life that are marked out for us and along the way they have rest stops.
The rat race is real but it’s just one race and it isn’t one of the races marked out for us.
I remember the rat race. And I remember leaving it. I left it to run in a different race, the one marked out for me at the time.
In the rat race, I had very little rest, very little reflection, very little energy, very little life.
Don’t get me wrong, when I left the rat race I didn’t retire. I absolutely loved my very busy, high pressure career. Why? Because I was in a different race, the one marked out for me.
See, I don’t agree with Calvin Coolidge. Character can take the place of perseverence. Coolidge says “nothing in the world can take the place of perseverence.” Not true.
Romans 5:2-5
- And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.
When character takes the place of perseverence, we are not taken out of the race. I’m talking about the race marked out for us, not the rat race. (Character can take us out of the rat race.)
But the race marked out for us at any given time requires perseverence only until it is replaced with character.
More on this later after I try to find out what Coolidge meant. Maybe he was taken out of context. Until then, I’ll think on these things…
Hebrews 12:1
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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.
