“On your marks…get set…” The shot rings out and you take off
running. Blood and adrenaline course through your veins. You have trained
endlessly for this moment. This is your purpose – your defining moment. You are
here to run this race. Finish it, once and for all. Your legs and fists pump
with rhythmic intensity. Muscles begin to sting but you are oblivious to the
pain and to the other contestants. Only two sounds register to your ears and
mind: your heart-beat thundering in your chest, and the crowd cheering wildly.
That sound – the sound of belief and encouragement – spurs you on. You are
surrounded by a great crowd of witnesses; all convinced that you can do this.
They believe in you. They are rooting you on. That keeps you going.
Suddenly, the unthinkable happens, and you stumble. Pain
rips through your ankle, but it cannot be compared to the pain now searing your
heart. As you fall, your dreams come down with you. This is all that you had
ever hoped to live for, and it is ending. Within yourself, you moan in anguish.
But just as suddenly as you fell moments before, your attention is called away
by a sound. The crowd…they are still cheering. In fact, they never stopped. As
you lift yourself up to stand upon your uninjured leg, realization strikes you.
They are not cheering for you. They never were. Wounded confusion rises in your
throat. If they are not cheering for you, who are they cheering for? You hobble
further down the track, straining to hear the name they cry out so
emphatically.
Chills run over your whole body as the name becomes clear and
your understanding clearer. It was never about you. It was never your moment.
Your eyes are opened and now you are moving across the track faster than ever
before. But you are not even running. You make no effort. You look underneath
you and see that you are being carried. You are being swept along, flying to
the finish line. Magnificent arms of strength hold you up. The cheering becomes
deafening and sweet. It was never you they believed in. These witnesses are not
witnesses to you; they do not even care about your great feats of endurance.
This crowd of witnesses testifies to something else.
Over and over again, they cheer on a name. His name. Louder.
More passionately. They cheer him on. The crowd roars of his faithfulness till
it reverberates in your heart, drowning out the sound of your own pulse. This
is your defining moment after all. This is indeed your purpose. But in this
race of yours, you are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, and they are not cheering you on. Their confidence is
not in you. It was never up to your abilities in the first place. They do not
tell you that you can make it; you can’t. They are not testifying to you that
if you just keep going, you can finish the race. They testify to one thing and
one thing only. He is able. He is faithful. He is strong. He will
hold you up. He will always, always, always finish the race, and on His wings,
you will cross the finish line. You
will ride in on the train of His victory.
“Wherefore seeing
we also are compassed about with so
great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin
which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is
set before us.” –Hebrews 12:1
