Run Your Own Race
Hebrews 12:1-2
By Dave Redick
Baseball Hall of Famer, Willie Mays, is one of the greatest athletes baseball has ever produced. But he wasn't always like that. For a time he idolized Joe DiMaggio. He watched how DiMaggio stood, how he walked, how he swung the bat, how he ran; he tried his best to be another DiMaggio. Finally, some wise coach said to him, "Willie, you have great ability. Don't be like anybody else. Be yourself." At last he became Willie Mays.
Introduction
The following words were written by actress Marlo Thomas, daughter of actor Danny Thomas.
"My first theatrical role was playing the lead in a summer production of Gigi at the Laguna Playhouse south of Los Angeles. The excitement of finally being a real actress was painfully short-lived.
"All the interviews and reviews focused on my father. Would I be as good as Danny Thomas? Was I as gifted, as funny? Would I be as popular? I was devastated.
"'Daddy,' I began, 'please don't be hurt when I tell you this. I want to change my name. I love you but I don't want to be a Thomas anymore.'
"I tried not to cry during the long silence that followed. Then he said, 'I raised you to be a thoroughbred. When thoroughbreds run they wear blinders to keep their eyes focused straight ahead, with no distractions from the crowd or other horses. They just run their own race. That's what you have to do. Don't listen to me or to anyone else.'
"The next night at the theater, the stage manager knocked on my dressing-room door and handed me a white box tied with a red ribbon. Inside was a pair of old horse blinders with a note that read, 'Run your own race, baby.'
"He could have said it a dozen ways: 'Be independent, don't be influenced by others,' etc. But it wouldn't have had the same impact. My father chose the right words at the right time. And throughout my life I've always been able to cut to the chase by asking myself, 'Am I running my race or somebody else's?'"(1)
It occurred to me as I read those words that a lot of people try very hard to run other's races - and they sometimes end up miserable and resentful because of it.
A good friend once shared with me how, as he was growing up, he never quite measured up to the standards of his demanding parents. But it wasn't just that. Even when his parents were deceased it was hard for him to relax and be himself. It was as though his parents were still alive, taunting him with their displeasure because he was not meeting their expectations.
My sister is three years younger than I am (and a lot prettier, I might add.) She had the dubious "privilege" of following me through school - many times being assigned the same teachers who taught me. I was a kind of "teacher's pet" growing up. I know, I know, it's a lot more fun to talk about the mischief you did when you were in school, but I really didn't do very much mischief. I guess most people would consider me kind of boring. I liked to please others and worked very hard doing it. As a result I usually (not always, but usually) found myself in the teachers' good graces by the end of the year. Then, three years later, along would come my sister. Debbie wasn't like me. No, she wasn't a troublemaker. Get that idea out of your head. She was a good student. She just liked to be recognized for who she was and not for who I was. Often it would be that the teacher would approach her and say, "Oh, you're David's sister." She used to tell me how much she hated hearing that. In fact, she would usually find some way to tell them in no uncertain terms that she was not her brother and unless they wanted trouble, that had better be the end of it. She and I laugh about it now, but it wasn't so funny back then.
All of these cases have one thing in common. They are accounts of people who had a difficult time in life because they either tried to run someone else's race or someone expected them to run someone else's race. A good set of "sanctified blinders" would probably have helped in each case.
Hebrews 12:1-2 refers to our Christian lives as a race. There it says, "…let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith…." In this race, according to the Hebrew writer, we are to get into the race and fix our eyes on Jesus, presumably keeping our eye from fixing on other things.
I have several things for you to consider this morning regarding this race that is set before us. They don't all come from this text, but they do pertain to the race. They may seem rather obvious - and perhaps they are. But don't be fooled. It is very often that I see people living as though they were not obvious at all. Here's my first point:
1. By God's Design, No Two Runners in this Race Are Alike.
There are similarities, to be sure. But no two are exactly alike. To my knowledge, the best statement of that in the Bible is Psalm 139:14. Though the race metaphor isn't used in that passage, it does apply to each of us who run it. : "I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Wonderful are Thy works, And my soul knows it very well."
The word to note there is "wonderfully." Some lexicons and commentaries point out that the Hebrew word it translates comes from a root that means "to differentiate or distinguish." For instance, it is used in Exodus 11:7 to refer to the difference God made between the Israelites and the Egyptians during the final plague that came upon Egypt in the time of Moses.(2)
David, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, was saying that God uniquely or distinctly made him. Sometimes when we see a noticeably independent person, we jokingly say, "He's an original." The truth of the matter is - we're all originals - uniquely created by God.
"Johnny, why can't you be more like your brother Tommy?" says an exasperated parent. Johnny can never be exactly like Tommy. Better that such a parent says, "Johnny, why can't you be more obedient (or more thoughtful or more diligent, or whatever.)" What is needed is a changed Johnny, not a cloned Tommy. Johnny can't be another person. Such a parent is really asking Johnny to do something that is impossible. This is probably the reason why Proverbs 22:6 tells parents to "Train up a child in the way he should go…." You cannot cut children out like cookies with the same cutter. They must be trained with regard to their own "bent." We're all originals and that is how God intends it.
This is obvious when you look in scripture. I think of the powerful ministry of Elijah. He was a firebrand preacher, banging his way into the courts of Ahab and Jezebel, flinging God's three and a half-year drought decree into their teeth, then retiring to the brook Cherith to live with the ravens.(3) Elijah was a loner. He was a wasteland wanderer. Seldom is he seen working with others. Then it was out of Cherith, to take on the 450 prophets of the bloodthirsty Jezebel. Again Elijah was truly an "army of one." You would think that he must have been God's ideal prophet - one that all others should emulate - a man of power who gave no quarter and cut no slack. If you're a preacher, just be like Elijah and you're all you need to be. But after the ministry of Elijah peaked, and the prophet crashed under the juniper tree, he ordained a replacement, a man God Himself picked. Elisha, Elijah's successor was about as different from his predecessor as any person could be.
Though he had a double portion of Elijah's spirit(4), Elisha's appearance was much more typical and "average" than Elijah's. He was bald(5), while Elijah had been an extremely hairy man.(6) Elisha was a farmer when he was called. No desert wandering for him! Instead, he had a house in Samaria.(7) Much tension had existed between Elijah and his audience. Israelite royalty hated to see him coming. Elisha's ministry was very different. He was welcomed into virtually all levels of society from the courts of the king to the dwellings of the lowliest peasants.
For Elisha to have striven to follow exactly in Elijah's footsteps and become a carbon copy of his predecessor would have been a mistake and outside the will of God. At the right time, God made it clear that He was no longer in the fire and the earthquake and the wind as He had been.(8) He was in the gentle breeze, signifying that in the time following Elijah, He needed a kinder, gentler kind of man. You can read all about it in 1 Kings 19. My point is that both of these men were very different prophets - at opposite poles in many ways - yet God used both of them powerfully.
Yes, we may borrow from others. From others we can learn much because we also hold many things in common. But these similarities in no way negate the fact that we are different by God's design.
Think of all the different Bible characters that God used. From Adam and Able to Zacharias and Zerubbabal - no two are the same.
From the beginning it was like this. Even the first two brothers ever born were not alike. Cain was a tiller of the ground. Able was a shepherd. They were very different, though they were as close to the original parents as any humans could be.
Even the twins of the Bible, whom we might expect to be the same since they were born at the same time to the same parents and presumably lived in the same environment, were different. Think of the differences between Jacob and Esau. Jacob was a softer man who lived in tents and loved civilization. Esau was a rugged man of the field. He loved the rough and tumble outdoors.(9)
Consider the Apostles of Jesus. They were very different from one another. Matthew was a government agent. Simon was a Zealot who opposed the government. Thomas was a sit-back-cautious-analyzer. Peter was a jump-first-look-later kind of guy.
When you start to tally up the differences between the people that God used in the Bible, you realize that He can and will use all kinds. We're not all supposed to be alike. He used Abraham, a nomad shepherd, to bless the world through his descendants. He used Moses, an adopted king's kid, to deliver His people. He used Joshua, a retired spy, to lead His army into battle. He used Hannah, a mother, to give birth to a godly judge and prophet. He used David, an obscure, redheaded shepherd boy, to bring His nation to its greatest glory. He used the many and different prophets to call the nation back to Him. He used Jeremiah, a prophet who couldn't hold back his tears, to announce the coming captivity. He used Nehemiah, a man who pulled out beards, to rebuild the wall and Zerubbabal, a man with whom even pronouncing his name is a project, to rebuild the temple. He used Malachi to announce the coming of John the Baptist, who in turn, announced the coming of Christ. Christ did miracle after miracle. John is not credited in the Bible with doing even one miracle. He used Stephen to offer his life as a testimony to the murderous Saul. He used Ananias to baptize Saul and the great encourager, Barnabas, to persuade the people that the former persecutor had really changed. Shall I go on? I could. I could keep us here well through our afternoon dinner.
We're all different. By God's design, no two people are alike and He can use us all. So why is it (you tell me) that we expend so much energy trying to be like others? Or trying to be what we are not. Or trying to be something different than God made us?
Baseball Hall of Famer, Willie Mays, is one of the greatest athletes baseball has ever produced. But he wasn't always like that. For a time he idolized Joe DiMaggio. He watched how DiMaggio stood, how he walked, how he swung the bat, how he ran; he tried his best to be another DiMaggio. Finally, some wise coach said to him, "Willie, you have great ability. Don't be like anybody else. Be yourself." At last he became Willie Mays.
Like the horse running his race without the blinders we talked about earlier, we sometimes spend our time looking around at everybody else - perhaps even wishing we were someone else. Meanwhile we neglect the race that is laid out for us in our own assigned lane of the track.
I hate to confess this but for your sake, I will. I think it wasn't until I was in my late thirties that I finally settled down and accepted who I was and realized that I had something to offer that was unique and (presumably) worthwhile. I used to hate hanging out with other preachers because of their constant comparisons. I felt very inferior. It seemed I lacked so much, measured by what others had. What is it that causes a person to finally change all that? Is it maturity? Maybe. Or perhaps it's just finally accepting the way God has made you to the extent that you can begin working on what you have without so much dissipation. You finally realize that you have to run your own race!
I like A.W. Tozer's description of a meek man. Notice as I read his words how he correlates with this issue of running one's own race: "The meek man is not a human mouse afflicted with a sense of his own inferiority. Rather, he may be in his moral life as bold as a lion and as strong as Samson; but he has stopped being fooled about himself. He has accepted God's estimate of his own life. He knows he is as weak and helpless as God has declared him to be, but paradoxically, he knows at the same time that he is, in the sight of God, more important than angels. ... He knows well that the world will never see him as God sees him and he has stopped caring."(10)
Paul's words to the Corinthians make so much sense when you finally realize this:
"For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot should say, 'Because I am
not a hand, I am not a part of the body,' it is not for this reason any the less a part of
the body. And if the ear should say, 'Because I am not an eye, I am not a part of the
body,' it is not for this reason any the less a part of the body. If the whole body were
an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the sense of
smell be? But now God has placed the members, each one of them, in the body, just as He
desired."(11)
You are, by God's design, exactly what God intended you to be. Your job is to figure out what that is and put it to work in His service. By God's design, no two runners in this race are alike. So… my second point is:
2. Run Your Own Race.
The American musician George Gershwin idolized famous composer, Irving Berlin. Gershwin was a struggling composer, getting about $35 a week in New York City's tin-pan-alley, and Berlin noticed him. He offered him a job as his musical secretary at three times $35 a week. But he also said, "George, I advise you not to take this job, because if you do, you will become a second-rate Irving Berlin. But, if you say to yourself, 'I, George Gershwin, am unique, and I'll be nobody else but George Gershwin, you can become immortal.'" And that was exactly what he did.
I'm not talking about arrogance here. I'm not talking about reckless self-confidence or putting flesh over faith. "Self confidence is acceptable only if it is rooted in God-confidence."(12)
To run your own race properly you must have balance in your thinking. That means assessing what God has uniquely given you and going to work on developing and using that. Paul said in Romans 12:3
"I say to every man among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith."
There are three important aspects in what that verse teaches:
· Not thinking too highly of yourself
· Not thinking too lowly of yourself
· Having the sense to measure what God has allotted you as an individual.
Run your own race.
But think of some of the obstacles:
· "What are people going to think?"
· "How will I do when I'm compared with _______?"
· "I'll never live up to ____!"
· "But what if I fail?"
In order to run your own race you have to get beyond every one of these.
A man paid a visit to his local psychologist. When the doctor asked him what had prompted
the visit, the man said, "I'm suffering from an inferiority complex." In the
weeks following, the psychologist put his new patient through an intensive battery of
tests. Next came the long wait while the test results were tabulated and appropriate
correlation was made. Finally, the doctor called the man and asked him to return to the
clinic. "I have some interesting news for you," the doctor began. "What's
that?" asked the man. "It's no complex," the psychologist answered.
"You are inferior."
All joking aside, there are plenty of people who will tell you that you're inferior. That's because they have you entered in someone else's race. How do you respond to such suggestions? You say, "That's OK. I'm not running your race. I'm running mine and on that track, God is my only judge.
I like the way Eleanor Roosevelt put it. She said, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."(13)
Let me clarify what I am and am not saying. I am saying that it is no mistake that you are who and what you are. God made you that way and He did it for a reason. You will find the most meaning in life when you learn how He has uniquely made you and confidently employ that knowledge in striving to please Him. You don't have to be someone else. I am not saying that since, say, you are an obnoxious person with a nasty disposition, you should cease trying to change that aspect of your life because, "Well, that's just the way God made me and you'll have to get used to it." The goal is to live to please God as the unique person He has made you. I'm not saying you don't have to change. I am saying that the real issue is changing to please God rather than others.
And by the way, it is not the job of the rest of us to make people in our own image. God doesn't want a bunch of little Dave's running around (aren't you glad?). Neither does he want a bunch of people who are just like you (as nice as you might think you are.) He wants a bunch of maturing Christians running around, each day having their own unique beings conformed more and more to the image of Christ.
And to any of us who feel it is our mission in life to make sure everyone else becomes just like us, I have some words from the Apostle Paul. This comes from Romans 14:4-5: "Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and stand he will, for the Lord is able to make him stand… Let each man be fully convinced in his own mind."
Run your own race. And let others run theirs.
Conclusion
A man named Randy Spencer made the following observations about his daughter:
"My daughter, like the typical American girl, has had her share of dolls and stuffed animals. Today, through modern technology, a little girl need not be content with dull, lifeless dolls, but can experience the thrill of owning a lifelike replica of a baby that can walk and talk, drink and wink, slurp and burp, cry, sigh and laugh - almost anything a real baby does, including wet itself and get diaper rash. After ten years of buying these mechanical marvels, I wondered which of these dolls was my daughter's favorite? To my surprise, I found her favorite was a small rag doll she had received on her third birthday. All the other performing dolls had gone, but this simple rag doll had allowed her to love it. The other dolls had caught her eye, but the rag doll had won her heart. To my daughter the rag doll was real and was loved just the way it was, and the scars of love showed as the hair was nearly gone, the eyes were missing, and the clothes were soiled and torn. But, missing all these parts, it was still what it had always been, just itself. We are, too often, like the high-tech dolls of my daughter. We try to impress others with skills, talent, education, speech, or mannerisms when what they want is someone just being themselves. Within every man lies the innate desire to be loved and accepted. Don't try to be something or someone that you are not. Just be yourself. Love is not won - a reward for performance or achievement. You don't have to sing, teach, preach, or pray well to be loved. People will not love us for what we do but rather for what we are."(14)
Be yourself. Run your own race.
Footnotes: Use your back button to return to your place.
1. From RIGHT WORDS, RIGHT TIME, by Marlo Thomas, Reader's Digest,
June 2002
2. Ex 11:7: "But against any of the
sons of Israel a dog shall not even bark, whether against man or beast, that you may
understand how the LORD makes a distinction between Egypt and Israel."
3. 1 Kings 17
4. 2 Kings 2:9
5. 2 Kings 2:23
6. 2 Kings 1:8
7. 2 Kings 6:32
8. 1 kings 19:11-16
9. Genesis 25:27
10. A. W. Tozer in The Pursuit of God. Christianity Today, Vol. 39, no.
8.
11. 1 Corinthians 12:14-18
12. Joe R. Barnett, Pulpit Helps, Feb. 1992, p. 14.
13. James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House
Publishers, Inc, 1988) p. 18.
14. James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale
House Publishers, Inc, 1988), p. 321
Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.
Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.
All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.
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