Last week I was busy studying for three maths final exams that I had at uni. Because the maths courses I took were really hard, I knew I had to study for them during the semester and not only a few days before the exam, but I didn’t… The result? I failed one of the tests. I know, it is terrible… and I could try to find many excuses to justify my failure, but I won’t… I decided I want to finally learn something from it.

The interesthing thing about it is that I knew I had to prepare earlier. Not only because they were hard, but also because the last time I studied maths was about 4 years ago in Brazil. In fact, I couldn’t understand the first 2 weeks of lectures, and I only started to understand some of the stuff they were teaching in the middle of the semester… I knew 3 final exams were coming, and that they would be really hard, but for some reason I still didn’t preapare for them very well…

Well, it is obvious that we need to prepare for the things that we know are coming, and there is no need for me to write about it. But what about the things that we don’t really know about our future? Can we prepared for them? Or, should prepare for them?

Hebrews 11:1 says “NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses].” (AMP)

Many times we want things to happen in our lives or ministries, we pray for them, we say we believe they will happen… but if we really have faith, if we are really convicted of their reality (even though they are not here yet), shouldn’t we get ready for them?

For example, if I want my ministry to grow, shouldn’t I get ready for it to happen? Or if I want to be a missionary in China, am I learning about their culture and language? The big question here is: if God gives me what I am asking for right now, am I ready for it? If the answer is no, then it is time to get prepared!

WARNING! This post may contain stories that normal people would classify as unpleasant. You’ve been warned!

This past week I was forced to remember an interesting event that happened to me in one of the triathlons I did in Brazil. If you didn’t know yet, I trained triathlon for 2 years while in Brazil. I stopped when I came to Australia, but still have plans to restart training. Anyway, one of the competitions I did was a long distance triathlon, which included 1800m swimming, 66km cycling and then 18km running (Here is a photo of me finishing it). For some reason the start was just after lunch, which is unusual for a tritahlon. But that was not all. Everything was fine until the running…

As soon as I started running, I felt sick, wanting to vomit… but at the same time, I did NOT want to vomit, because it feels so bad to do it (you have to agree with me). Then I kept running, and running, and running… My legs were already tired after all the cycling, and I still had a lot of running to do. I tried to drink some water, but it didn’t help. My mind couldn’t work anymore, all I could do is keep running. I wanted to FINISH it! And more importantly, finish in front of my friend, who was 2 minutes behind me. But I was getting sick of being sick, and asked a friend for advice on how to get better. He said what I didn’t want to hear: “stop and vomit!”

After some fight with myself, I did. I stopped to vomit, but it didn’t work… nothing came out… and then I kept running. But not for long. After running for a little while, I needed to pee, but I didn’t want to stop… I was almost finishing. Then I had a great idea: “I can stop, open my legs and pee”. Since I was wearing skinners, I thought the pee would go straight on the ground. So I stopped and peed… but… for some reason the pee ended up inside my left shoe, and I couldn’t do anything other than laugh! When I started running again, the noise my left shoe made every step was very cool! I will never forget it…

Maybe you are wondering why am I telling you this terrible (and funny) story… well… the fact is our Christian life is like a long distance triathlon. In fact, the Bible compares it to a race many times (2 Timothy 4:7, Hebrews 12:1, 1 Corinthians 9:24, …). And it is true! It is long, and it is hard. We find difficulties along the way, sometimes we are tired and want to give up… sometimes things don’t go well and all we want is stop and rest. But in a race, if you stop, you lose…

Paul said: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever.” (1 Corinthians 9:24-25, TNIV)

God gave us a race to run… He called us and every day He gives us oportunities to bless and impact other people’s lives! And our prize is not a medal or money… Our prize is to bring people into the Kingdom of God, and one day, to Heaven! Our prize will last FOREVER!

The big question is are we running our race in such a way as to get the prize? I’ve known stories of professional triathletes that defecate while riding so they don’t have to stop… it sounds terrible, but many of them won their prizes! And they did all this crazy stuff for a prize that will NOT last!

Our race is much more noble than a triathlon… and sometimes we don’t want to make a sacrifice and run it in such a way as to get the prize. Paul said in Hebrews 12:4 (still talking about the race): “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.”. Are we resisting to the point of shedding our blood? To the point of having to pee in our shoes? To the point of having to defecate while riding? No, it doesn’t sound pleasant… but sometimes it is the only way to win the race.

Maybe things are not going well in your life, in your ministy, in your race… maybe you feel like sitting down and waiting until the pain goes away… maybe all you want to do right now is to give up… well… don’t give up! There are good news: God is running this race with us! He is there to help! And with Him, we will all win the race!

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Cor 4:16-18)