Patience: Keeping the Finish Line in View
Yesterday, I ran my first-ever half marathon (The Southwest Half Marathon). That’s 13.1 miles. 
I’ve been training for over three months. One of the running principles I learned in running with a group of experienced runners was pacing—not starting at too fast a pace because you won’t have “enough left in your tank” at the end.
During my training, I was pretty good at pacing. In fact, I usually had a decent “kick” at the end of a long run—where I felt the energy to actually increase my speed during that last mile.
Well, training and running are two separate situations! Yes, I finished the half marathon. However, I hit the proverbial “wall” at the 10-mile mark. Normally, with a 5K (3.1) left in a run, I would have felt energized. However, for this run, I felt dead. I trudged along at a slower pace, finishing, but not with a kick. I would have rather kicked than trudged the last few miles.
What Happened?
So what happened? Well, several factors, but here’s one that my experienced running partner noted. Not only did I not pace myself that well—I started too fast. But as we approached each mile marker and I could see it in the distance, I sped up. Here was his caution to me (that I should have listened to!):
You can’t run as if each mile marker is the finish line.
My Lifestyle
Wow! That describes not only my running style, but unfortunately, all too often my “living style.”
Let’s just say that patience is not one of my virtues.
I think I’ve seen a new side of my impatience. I run life as if everything is the finish line.
Now, part of that is part virtue—God wired me to be “high energy.” I don’t trudge through life.
But “high energy” without “pacing” equals impatience.
Marks of Impatience
Perhaps you share my struggle with impatience. Some signs, in light of this “pacing” and “keeping the finish line in view,” include:
1. Do you and I “blow by others” as we race through life?
2. Do you and I assume that others must or should run life and ministry at our pace?
3. Do you and I see everything as “dire”—everything as “the finish line,” rather than what it is—one “leg” or “lap” in a long marathon called “life”?
4. Do you and I fail to keep eternity in view—the true finish line?
5. Do you and I fail to enjoy the moment, always looking for the next horizon, the next quest?
6. Do you and I assume that change and growth must happen at our pace?
A Principle for Patience
As a result of my half- arathon experience, I’m learning a new principle of patience. Perhaps we could learn it together.
Let’s keep the true finish line in view.
The finish line or goal is not the next accomplishment, the next change, the next area of ministry, or personal growth.
The finish line is eternity and we’re running a life-long race with the goal of glorifying Christ by how we live our lives here on earth.
The finish line is finishing well—living throughout my life including the end of life a Christlike life.
The finish line is not an activity or an accomplishment; the finish line is character—each day becoming more like our longsuffering, patient Savior.
The Apostle Paul said it like this:
“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14).
Join the Conversation
How could keeping the finish line in view keep you more patient with others and with life as you run the race of life?
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