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Races aren’t cheap.

In fact, every time I sign up for one, I think to myself…

“Self… Am I really paying money to someone else for ME to then show up and run?”

But something happens in my head once I’ve paid the price.

I make the decision to finish.

I don’t register for a 5K thinking that I might show up.

I don’t sign up for 10K thinking that I might train for it.

I don’t pay for a half-marathon thinking that I might complete the course.

I enter the race because I want to run, or walk, or crawl across the finish line.

So when I fell… as embarrassed as I was, it didn’t take me long to think my way out of a funk.

Once I realized that

…I wasn’t bleeding

…nothing was broken

…I was still alive…

I got up and kept moving.

The race was paid for.

I didn’t want the price I paid to go to waste.

All I had to do was keep going.

Here’s the thing.

My life is not cheap.

There was a cost required to redeem my soul from the grips of sin and death.

I was reminded as were millions of others this past Sunday, that Jesus paid it all.

I am bought with a price.

The cost of my race has already been taken care of.

…All I have to do is run.

…All I have to do is finish.

…All I have to do is get up when I find that I’ve tripped and fallen – and keep going.

And I don’t know about you but many times I get so discouraged that I’ve landed on my face… again.

It’s almost like I just decide at various times to do random gravity checks.

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For no good reason other than my own humanity I just fail.

But, despite my failures,  something happens when I look at my journey on the earth in the light of the cross.

Everything I need to be a finisher has already been done.  I just have to keep moving until I reach the finish line.

That doesn’t mean I won’t fall or that I won’t be tired or that I won’t want to quit.

It does serve as a reminder however that when I started this race, I intended to see it through to the end.

I made a decision to finish.

So don’t let your failure define how you finish.

Your failure may be something that happens to you or because of you.

But your failure does not comprise the essence of who you are.

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And we all fall.

We all get tired.

There are times for all of us when we want to quit.

Many of us which that we could start over, repair past mistakes, remake poor decisions.

That’s not a choice that we have available to us.

But we can start new from where we stand today.

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But if Resurrection Sunday does nothing else, it should remind us of our reason to dust ourselves off from whatever situation we might have found ourselves and keep moving to our finish.

It’s your race.

Run well.

And if you find yourself on the unexpectedly with your face to the pavement, it’s not too late to make the decision to finish.

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Get up.

Keep going.

Because Someone who loves you very much got up too.

Don’t let the price He paid go to waste.

“For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God…” ~ 1 Corinthians 6:20