By Steve Badger
“You can’t ride to the top of the hill at the end of the park,” my friend challenged. “I mean, without stopping.”
Several friends and I often rode our 10-speed bicycles around Battlefield Park in Vicksburg, Mississippi. The 10-mile course ended with the longest, steepest hill in the park.
None of us had ever ridden around the park without stopping, but now a friend was challenging me to do it. Several failed attempts had me wishing I hadn't accepted his challenge publicly.
To succeed I would have to arrive at the last hill with enough reserved energy and willpower to pedal to the top.
The snap of fall in the air gave me a feeling of confidence. If I would ever make it nonstop around this park and up that last hill, it would be today.
To succeed I would have to maintain a level of commitment high enough to pay the price of conditioning my legs and lungs and high enough to try again and again. In the same way, the Christian life requires a level of desire high enough to motivate spiritual conditioning and repeated beginnings.
Several frustrated attempts taught me that desire by itself was not enought to prevent failure. But desire did push me to keep working to learn from my failures.
As I left the visitor center and coasted down a long, gentle hill, I recalled the importance of pace. In my failed attempts I had pedaled too fast—I’d set a pace I couldn’t maintain. Today I varied my pace. At times I pedaled strenuously, while at other times I coasted downhill and conserved my strength. Both cadences would be critical to my nearing the end with enough energy to attack that dreaded last hill.
Pace is also important in walking with the Lord all the way to the end. At times we need to run at top speed; at times, jog or even walk; at times, sit and rest. Paul’s letters compare the Christian life to running a race, and God himself insisted that one day out of seven we cease from our labors and rest.
We need times of spiritual coasting so we can receive strength from the Lord.
As I continued my trek and enjoyed the rhythm of the pedaling and the light perspiration on my face, it dawned on me that where I looked was important. I often found my gaze drifting to other cyclists, at the scenery, or glancing at the top of a hill I was climbing. I knew if my eyes focused on a seemingly unachievable top, I would give up. I would have to fix my eyes on that part of the road immediately in front of me.
Keeping our ultimate goal of heaven in mind often motivates Christians, but it is more important for us to “fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2, NIV).
Christians determined to finish the course must not focus on other believers, great leaders, church structures, denominations, circumstances, or anything else. Keeping our goals in mind is fine, but we must keep our eyes on Jesus and nothing else.
As I started up one of the first long hills, I knew I must not quit until I reached the top. The Bible gives us this same instruction: “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” (Hebrews 12:1, NIV).
Our common reasons for not persevering in the Christian life are really just excuses. But the reasons for persevering until the very end are eternal. Our tenacity will one day be worth the price—whatever it is.
When addressing the Ephesian elders, Paul said, “I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me” (Acts 20:24, NIV).
As I turned the final hairpin curve and looked up the last and steepest hill of the journey, I heard a distant voice shouting at me. At first I couldn’t understand him, but finally the message came through: “You can make it! Don’t give up! Keep on pedaling! Come on! Don’t quit now! You can do it!”
Without my knowing it, a man at the top of the hill had been watching me since I had started climbing this last hill. Now he was cheering me on. His encouragement sent a surge of energy through me, filling me with power. I could make it!
We Christians need to give and receive encouragement. The writer of Hebrews instructed us to do this very thing: “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds” (Hebrews 10:23,24, NIV).
I had held my high level of commitment to motivate me to get in shape. I had varied my pace appropriately. I had kept my eyes on the road immediately in front of me. I had persevered. I had received encouragement. And I made it to the top!
I triumphantly circled the parking lot at the top of the hill. Then I pedaled across the road to meet my unknown encourager and accept a tall glass of iced tea.
My rewards were a feeling of achievement, my friends’ praise, and that glass of iced tea. In our uphill journey of following Jesus, all who finish win, and the rewards are much more than a glass of tea and a feeling of satisfaction. God has promised us a crown of life, a new name, a new home, eternity with Him.
From time to time I stop, reflect, and examine myself. Am I remaining spiritually conditioned and committed so I can pedal nonstop all the way to the top of the last hill? Being a functioning member of a local church is part of spiritually staying in shape. “Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another and all the more as you see the Day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25, NIV).
So persevere. Be encouraged. You can make it. If you will only keep on, you will finish the race, you will receive the reward. And one day you will repeat Paul’s claim to Timothy, “I have finished the race” (2 Timothy 4:7, NIV).
See you at the top of the last hill at the end of the park.
April 22, 1990
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