How to Run Your Spiritual Race Well*

The Christian life is described in Scripture as a race that requires focus, perseverance, and faith. Drawing from Hebrews 12:1–2, Pastor Chris Teien shares how to throw off hindrances, fix your eyes on Jesus, and run with endurance. This message blends biblical insight, personal reflection, and practical encouragement to help you finish well. 

Link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2285086/episodes/16335530

Key Points:

1. Run Your Race – Every believer has a race marked out by God. The Christian life is not passive but active and faith-filled. Hebrews 11 points to the heroes of faith who ran before us and now cheer us on.
2. Run Unhindered – Identify and cast off sins, distractions, and attachments that slow you down. Just as ancient runners shed anything that would entangle them, believers must deal honestly with what holds them back.
3. Run with Perseverance – The spiritual race is a marathon. Press on through weariness, trust the Lord for renewed strength, and stay faithful even when fruit takes time.
4. Run Focused on Jesus – Keep your eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. He ran the race perfectly and shows us how to stay the course.
5. Run to Get the Prize – Run with purpose. Look forward, not backward. Press on to receive the heavenly reward for which Christ calls us.

Personal Stories from Pastor Chris:
Pastor Chris shares reflections on health apps predicting lifespan, his preference for fast walking, and early interests that shaped his understanding of priorities.

Notable Quotes:

• “The Christian life is not a sprint. It’s a marathon that takes a lifetime to run.”
• “Satan often sidetracks us by making us too busy, too tired, or too ashamed to run.”
• “We can’t make spiritual progress by looking back. Keep your eyes on Jesus and keep moving forward.”

Actionable Takeaways:

• Reflect on what may be weighing you down spiritually and surrender it to God.
• Choose one distraction to set aside this week to focus more on your walk with Christ.
• Renew your commitment to fix your eyes on Jesus when life gets muddy or difficult.
• Encourage a friend in their race, running together in faith.

Scripture References:
Hebrews 12:1–2; Romans 6:23; John 1:12; Isaiah 40:31; Galatians 5:7; Philippians 3:12–14; 2 Timothy 4:7

Keywords:
race, perseverance, Hebrews 12, spiritual growth, focus on Jesus, endurance, Christian living, faith journey, distractions

Challenge:
Ask God to reveal one weight or sin that is slowing you down, and take a concrete step this week to lay it aside so you can run your race with renewed focus and perseverance.

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The WELL Faith Podcast offers encouraging, Bible-based messages from Pastor Chris Teien and guests. New sermons are released every Sunday. Replay episodes are marked with an asterisk. Find us online at ChrisTeien.com and Rockwell.Church in Virginia, MN. Email comments to wellfaith24@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Today I want to talk to you about running your race unhindered. Yes, your spiritual race in Christ. The writer of the biblical book of Hebrews drew from the imagery of the Olympic Games that they had back in their time of running, just like the other Christ followers who have lived before we did, we're all in a spiritual race. Sin is what holds us back. The saints from the past have run the race and they're anxious to celebrate our victory. And Jesus, our Savior, is there waiting at the finish line to welcome us at the end of this life. So I hope in this time to share with you some brief pointers or like a coach giving some suggestions and even a strategy on how you can run a better life, how you can run your race unhindered. Watch this video.

SPEAKER_02 1:18

Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders. In the sin that so easily entangles. Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer, the perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition, so you will not grow weary and lose hearts.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Alright, so the video was a dramatic reading of Hebrews chapter 12, 1 and 2. I'm going to put that on the screen and I'm going to read that again just so that we are all on the same page. So therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scoring its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. So, number one, we need to run our race. We need to run our race. We can't just sit around and do nothing. There are things we need to do in the Christian life to run the race. The Christian life is a struggle. The Christian life is a spiritual battle. The Christian life can be a fight against doing what's right. As we try to avoid temptation, avoid sin. We struggle to make the right choices, to do the right things, to serve in the strength that God provides. And the race isn't a sprint, it's a marathon. And it takes a lifetime to run. Sometimes our life is long, sometimes our life is short. We have no idea how long our life will be. There's a few apps for my phone, and I was playing around with it and I was trying to predict how long I would live. And I had to put in my weight and my age, and if I sit a lot for work, and if I get a lot of exercise, and if I smoke. One of the questions was, do I live in the city or a small town? Anyway, so one of them that didn't ask too many questions said, Oh, you're going to live to be this, you're going to live to be 70 because that's average. Another one said, Oh, based on all the answers to your questions, you're going to live to be 96. So, anyway, if I'm going to live to be 96, I need to save more money for retirement. Nonetheless, we need to run our race. Now, if you're paging through your Bible, if you look at Hebrews chapter 11, it shows the heroes of the faith. It shows those people who went before us that were faithful to serve God. In the Old Testament, many of them did not realize, like Abraham, God's perfect promise, fulfillment of the promise of the promised land. We have a list of people that, if you look into their lives, they had struggles, they had issues, yet they continued to pursue the Lord in faith. They continued to walk with God, and they are admirable and they are considered heroes of the faith. They looked forward to Jesus. They could finish their race. And I expect that when it says a great cloud of witnesses, that I'm not sure that they're looking at us, watching us, but I'm pretty sure they'll be there cheering for us when we end this life and then cross over into the next to go be with Jesus, the victory celebration for finishing this life. Wouldn't it be great if we lived this life wisely? If we ran our race in such a way that we had victory in a way that honored God and that we were not ashamed of. So, what is this running the race? Do we have to actually get out there and run? It might be healthy if we did, or at least if we walked. I like to walk more than I like to run. So I like to walk at 4.5 miles per hour. That's a bit of a push, but I like that speed, and I think it's almost as good as running. But it's always good to have a goal. It's always good to push yourself. It's always good to try to do better than you did before. And what if we did that with our Christian life? So, participation in the spiritual race, the first thing we need to do to enter is we need to receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. So Romans 6 23 says, The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And John 1 12 says, to as many as received him, Jesus, to those who believed on his name, he gave the right to become a child of God. Without going into a lot of details on how to get saved, I'm going to assume that you are. But if you're not, watch some of our other videos or contact us and help let us know how we can help you come into a right relationship with Jesus Christ. But if you would like to pray to receive Jesus Christ right now, follow me in this prayer. Lord Jesus, I acknowledge that you died on the cross and that you rose again and ascended into heaven, and that you hear me now. Jesus, I am a sinner. Please forgive me of my sin and come into my life and save me. Make me the person you created me to be, created me to be. I want to follow you in Jesus' name. Amen. Or something similar to that. It's acknowledging that you want to follow Jesus. It's acknowledging that you want Jesus Christ to forgive you of your sin and come into your life. So let's get back to what is this running the Christian life. So it is having faith, it is believing in God, trusting in God, trusting his promises, worshiping the Lord, knowing Christ, having courage, praying, encouraging others, confessing any known sin as the Holy Spirit brings it to mind, loving God and loving others, living the Christian life and doing what the Holy Spirit calls you to do. That is part of running the Christian life, the Christian race. When we live that life, Satan often opposes us and tries to sidetrack us, tempt us, and pull us away. And sometimes he gets us to be too busy to think about running the Christian race, or too tired, or too shamed, too embarrassed. Those are some things that I want to talk about in the next few minutes. So number two, run unhindered. Run unhindered. Let us throw off everything that hinders the sin and the sin that so easily entangles. Back then, in Paul's day, when they would run for the Olympic race, they would take off the clothes that would slow them down. The athletes today they wear like lycra or spandix or whatever, so they are wearing clothes, but they are not held back by them. By the they've got the stretchy tight fabric that helps them to run faster and not get entangled. So back then they didn't have that, so they just went without clothes. They ran in the Olympics. And so when you think about this passage, and you think about taking off anything that hinders, think about in your Christian life what are some of the things that hold you back? Sin, distractions, desires, where you think and you dwell on and you pursue other things than what Christ has for you. When you are enticed to give into a temptation or to spend your time doing something that isn't the best, when you have worldly opportunity. Think about that. Think about okay, so Satan knew that you were going to be really effective serving Jesus. So he gave, he worked it out so that you would get a promotion at work, and you got a big raise, and now you're on the top of the food chain at your work. You were like number one, or you're like the boss or the manager, and now you have to spend all your time at work. You spend all your time at home thinking about work, and you are kept from fully following Jesus. You have to be aware of attachments that may distract you from following Jesus. Now, on the other hand, you can have other interests and you can be the boss and you can lead and do all sorts of other things, but you want to put Christ first. Felipe Massa of Brazil should have won the Formula One Grand Prix in Singapore in September 2008. But as he drove off from a refueling stop while in the lead, the fuel hose was still attached. And by the time his team removed the hose, he had lost so much time that he finished in 13th place instead of first. I mean, just think about that. Think about what is something that's holding you back. Now don't say, oh yeah, if I didn't have my kids holding me back, I'd be really successful successful. Let's get rid of the kids. That's that's not an option. Now, if you're a really good parent, they'll become adults and eventually they'll move out, they'll have jobs, maybe they'll even bless you with grandkids. But so there's seasons of life. I'm not going to talk about seasons of life, but when you think about running your race, there's different seasons of life where you might be able to accomplish more than other times. On the other hand, don't be waiting for those seasons because you really never know how long your life will be or what kind of opportunities that you will have. When you think about things that might hold you back, think about your friends. Okay. If you're really into running, if running was your deal and you wanted to be like a championship winning runner, if you wanted to run a marathon, if you wanted to run even a 5K, wouldn't it be great to have some running friends? Wouldn't it be great to have a friend that could help you to encourage you to run, run with you? That's what the church is about. Christian friends, choose friends who are committed to the race. Wrong friends will have values and activities that may deter you from the course. Much of your own weight may result from the crowd you run with. Make wise choices. So this is a note from the Life Application Bible commentary. Also says, drop certain activities that is for you at this time. They may these may be a weight. Try dropping them for a while, then check the results. If TV consumes precious time, try doing without it. If shoting is your stress relaxer, try something else. And then it says, get help for addictions that disable you. If you have a secret weight, such as pornography, gambling, or alcohol, admit your need and get help today. A lot of times we have things in our life that we just feel that we have to carry around with us. We have to do it or we have to have it. And it's a distraction and it keeps us from following Jesus and serving him and running our waste, our race successfully. A story says, historically, a story says, the army of Alexander the Great was advancing on Persia. At one critical point, it appeared that his troops might be defeated. The soldiers had taken so much plunder from their previous campaigns that they had become weighed down and were losing their effectiveness in combat. Alexander commanded that all the spoils be thrown into a heap and burned. The men complained bitterly, but soon saw the wisdom of the order. Someone wrote, It was as if wings had been given to them. They walked lightly again, and victory was assured. Then it says, As soldiers of Christ, we must rid ourselves of anything that hinders us in the conflict of our spiritual enemy. To fight the battle effectively, we must be clad only with the armor of God. To win the race, we must lay aside every weight that would drag us down and rob us of our strength and endurance. This weight may be an excessive desire for possessions, the captivating love of money, an endless pursuit of pleasure, slavery to sinful passions, or burdensome legalism. If we are to fight the good fight of faith and run the spiritual race with endurance, the watchword must be off with the weight. When I was a kid, I was really in, I'm still really into cars. I like cars. And if I had an insane amount of money, I would probably go buy a bunch of different kinds of cars and use as a hobby. But I used to dream about restoring cars and having a project car, but I look at what the Lord wants, what I feel the Lord wants me to accomplish in my life, what has eternal value as opposed to temporal value. And I just don't see that me restoring cars in my garage, while it may be therapeutic, is not help going to help me to win my race. If the writer of Hebrews were to try to make an allusion to running a race today, maybe he would use like some kind of video game. And as you're running through, you can jump up and grab coins and points, and that will help you win. I don't play games because I don't have time, because it doesn't fit into my race. Not that it's bad to play games, but if you play games all the time, it might be. But I think that there's all sorts of opportunities around us, if we'll just look around, if we'll just figure out what they are, if we'll just reach out and grab those opportunities and put spiritual points on the board. The Bible does talk about rewards. And wouldn't it be great if while we were, if they say bloom where you're planted, wouldn't it be great if while you are living where you're living, working where you're working, that you looked around and saw opportunities to serve Jesus while you run your race. Number three, run with perseverance. Run with perseverance. It's a marathon, and sometimes when we get tired, we just don't feel like we can go on anymore. But then if we confess any knowing sin, maybe take a nap or get some extra sleep, maybe change up our schedule, maybe let go of some of those things that are causing us stress and anxiety. Maybe we need to, maybe it's time to sell the boat, or maybe it's time to get rid of the cabin. So cabins are great, unless you have to go up to the cabin and work on it all summer, then that's not so great. But if you have a nice cabin, you can go out there, go up there and relax and spend more time with the Lord and could be part of running your race. You're gonna have to figure that out. Pray about it. Isaiah 40, 31 says, Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. Where does their strength come from? It comes from the Lord. Where does our strength come from? It comes from the Lord. So as we walk in the Lord, he will renew our strength. But we need to press on. We need to persist. We need to keep moving forward. We need to press on. Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not, nothing is more common than unsuccessful individuals of talent. Genius will not. Unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not, the world is full of educated derelicts, and persistence and determination alone are omnipotent, said Calvin Coolidge. And A. W. Tozer said, I have often wished that there were some way to bring modern Christians into a deeper spiritual life painlessly by short, easy lessons. But such wishes are vain. No shortcut exists. God has not bowed to our nervous haste, nor embraced the methods of our machine age. It is well that we accept the hard truth now. The man who would know God must give time to him, he must count no time wasted which is spent in the cultivation of his acquaintance. He must give himself to meditation and prayer hours on end. So did the saints of old, the glorious company of the apostles, the godly fellowship of the prophets, and the believing members of the holy church in all generations, and so must we, if we would follow in their faith. Galatians 5 17 says, You are running a good race. Who cut in to keep you from obeying the truth? Sometimes we are running a good race, and then there's a temptation or situation or relationship or something, something jumps in the way and gets in the way of God's best, gets us to believe things that aren't true, gets us to accept things that aren't right, and we need to stay focused. The following story illustrates patient endurance. The purposes of God often develop slowly because his grand designs are never hurried. The great New England preacher, Phillips Brooks, was noted for his poise and quiet manner. At times, however, even he suffered moments of frustration and irritability. One day a friend saw him feverishly pacing the floor like a caged lion. What's the trouble, Mr. Brooks? he asked. The trouble is that I'm in a hurry, but God is not. I feel that way sometimes. You feel that way? Some of the greatest missionaries of history devotedly spread the seed of God's word and yet had to wait long periods before seeing the fruit of their efforts. William Carey, for example, labored seven years before the first Hindu convert was brought to Christ in Burma, and Adenairam Judson toiled seven years before his faithful preaching was rewarded. In Western Africa, it was 14 years before one convert was received into the Christian church. In New Zealand, it took nine years, and in Tahiti, it was 16 years before the first harvest of souls began. We need to be patient. We need to learn patience. When we are running the Christian life, we need to trust God and just keep running. Keep putting one foot in front of the other. Keep moving forward. The founder of the Christian and Missionary Alliance, 19th century preacher, A.B. Simpson, wrote, Beloved, have you ever thought that someday you will not have anything to try you or anyone to vex you again? There will be no opportunity in heaven to learn or to show the spirit of patience, forbearance, and longsuffering. If you are to practice these things, it must be now. So each day we have opportunity. Each day we have opportunity to learn, to grow, to worship, to share Christ, and to do so many other things. And it is time to do it. It is time to run our Christian race. You might be sitting there thinking that's easy for you to say, that's easy for you to talk about, but I'll never, I'll never measure up, I'll never be good enough, I'll never accomplish anything because I've tried before and I failed. Do you know how many stories there are of people who have tried before and failed? People who could have given up in the beginning, and if they would have given up in the beginning, they would have missed out on a great lifetime, on a great career. Being a history maker? Like, for instance, the basketball player Michael Jordan. In the fall of 1978, 15-year-old Michael Jordan tried out for the varsity basketball team at Emsley Laney High School in Wilmington, North Carolina. The sophomore was five feet 11 inches, and with his skills, the coach told him that he was not good enough. Do you get that? The coach said he was not good enough, and Michael was cut from the team. Can you imagine going through life being the coach that cut Michael Jordan from your high school basketball team? Anyway, the following summer, however, Michael grew four inches and he trained rigorously. Upon earning a spot on the varsity roster, he averaged about 25 points per game over his final two seasons of high school play. As a senior, he was selected to the McDonald's all-American team. He says, when I got cut from the varsity team as a sophomore in high school, I learned something. I knew I never wanted to feel that bad again. I never wanted to have that taste in my mouth, that hole in my stomach. So I set a goal of becoming a starter on the varsity, said Michael Jordan. He went on to play professionally in the NBA, as you know, and is arguably the finest player in basketball history. If the Lord is calling you to do a work, persevere. He who called you will provide the means to succeed. Number four. Number four, run focused on Jesus. Again, Hebrews 12 2 says, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him, he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. So when we are running, we're not supposed to be looking at our feet. We'll get tripped up. We're not supposed to be looking around. We're not we're supposed to be focused on the race. If we stay focused on what's ahead of us, it's easier to run. While running this course, it's necessary both to be driven by faith. And to be drawn by hope. We're not to look down at our feet, around it, our surroundings, or behind it, our accomplishments or failure. We're to be fixing our eyes on Jesus. It means to keep our attention on Jesus, to keep focused on Jesus' plan for our life, to keep focused on what Jesus has done for us, to keep focused on that and not be distracted of those things that might make us lose hope, to lose hearts, and we need to keep pressing on. Jesus ran the race of life perfectly without sin. And he is a great example for us. And he calls us to run the race of life and even helps us, empowers us through the power of the Holy Spirit. So the Christian runner is to focus his eyes and mind upon Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ himself ran the race of faith when he was upon earth and he shows us exactly how to run it. We should remember four things about the race he ran. Number one, Jesus participated in the race himself. He actually ran the race of faith. In fact, he is the very author and finisher of faith. The author means that he authored, began, originated, created, and gave birth to the Christian race. The finisher means that he perfected, completed, and consummated the spiritual race. He ran the spiritual race to the finish. The idea that Jesus Christ ran the course of life perfectly. He was sinless, perfectly righteous, always obeying God in everything. He ran the race of faith, of utter obedience and trust in God all through his life upon earth. He finished his course, living a perfect and righteous life upon earth. Therefore, he created and authored and completed the Christian race for all believers. He is a blazing example of faith in God, of utter dependence, obedience, and righteousness for the believer. The believer is always to be looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. When we leave behind our past sins, we ask the Lord to forgive us, to forgive us, and then we move forward. The Bible says that I think in Psalm 103 that he remembers our sins no more, as far as the East is from the West. So it's good to confess any known sin, accept forgiveness, maybe ask forgiveness from somebody that you've offended or hurt, and then to move forward. Leave behind your bad habits that entangle you. Anger, jealousy, pride, talking evil things about other people, all these different things. When you fall, get up, keep moving forward. When it comes to getting pulled down in sin, sometimes when we are in muddy places, so maybe we're trying to live a clean life. Maybe we're trying to do things right, but we're just around, we're just in an environment where there's just lots of sin and lots of mud. And it's easy to have evil thoughts that dishonor God, or it's easy to say things or do things or be angry or gossipy or whatever. Kind of reminds me of like when you try to run through the mud and your shoes get all full of mud, and pretty soon your shoes get really heavy or maybe they even fall off, and you've got to stop for a minute and scrape the mud off your shoes because it's just too heavy. Sometimes when we're in a situation like that, we just need to stop and ask the Lord to help clean us up, confess any sin, and scrape that mud off and start running our race again. We need to leave behind our bad habits and we need to leave behind some of our accomplishments. So as we live life, maybe we've accomplished a lot of things, and then it makes us feel like we're better than other people. But in the Christian life, a lot of our accomplishments of the past don't really matter. So if you were the high school quarterback superstar and now you work in accounting, it's interesting, but most people really don't care that you're the high school quarterback superstar. They care about who you are today and how you treat other people. If you have all sorts of educational degrees that might help you to have knowledge or even wisdom sometimes in certain situations, but it doesn't mean that you shouldn't be humble and come alongside others that don't have those degrees. So many different things I could share about that. But anyway, sometimes you just need to leave behind some of the things that you've accomplished in the past and move forward. So if we're going to run a marathon, 26 miles or so, and I'm a champion marathon runner. Now we're just pretending I'm not a champion marathon runner. But so say I've won 10 marathons in the last year, and now I come to this race, and I'm like, no problem. I win all the marathons. Nobody can beat me. So I just run casually. Now, maybe I'm an extremely gifted runner and can do that and win, but most likely, if I want to keep winning, I'm gonna have to try and pay attention to running my race, pay attention to being disciplined if I really want to win. Otherwise, someone else is going to take that win away from us. Number five, run to get the prize. Number five, run to get the prize. Let's look at 1 Corinthians 9, 24 and 25. 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. So we run. We run in a way to get the prize. We won, run in a way to win. It's interesting that on May 6, 1954, Roger Bannister became the first man in history to run a mile in less than four minutes. Within two months, John Landy eclipsed the record by 1.4 seconds. On August 7, 1954, the two met together for a historic race. As they moved into the last lap, Landy held the lead. It looked as if he would win, but as he neared the finish, he was haunted by the question, where is Bannister? As he turned to look, Bannister took the lead. Landy later told the Time magazine reporter, if I hadn't looked back, I would have won. One of the most descriptive pictures of the Christian life in the Bible is of an athlete competing in a race. And we are told that one of the disciplines, the key to winning, is to keep our eyes on Jesus, to keep focused on Jesus, to keep looking forward, not looking back. Sometimes Satan uses our past or his accusations of us in the past to try to try to get us to slow down, to try to get us to not run this spiritual race. And we need to keep moving forward. We need to keep running and never assume that we've done enough. Never assume that we've run enough. And never assume, no matter how old we are, that Jesus is done with us. Some people say, Oh, I'm retired, I can't do anything now. Even if you're like stuck in your chair and you can't do anything, you can still pray and encourage people. Anyway, Philippians 3.12, Paul writes, I don't mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection, but I press on to pursue, but I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God through Christ Jesus is calling us to press on to forget the things of the past. Watch this video clip.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

They talk about my past, my failures, my flaws. They talk about the competition, about willpower and determination. They talk about style, about class, they talk about the big moments, about the prize, about winning. They talk, but I run.

SPEAKER_00 30:36

Maybe there are voices inside your head telling you that you're not going to win, that's too hard, that you should give up, that you should just stop trying. But we are called to run this spiritual race. We are called to be faithful, to serve Jesus. We are called to live a life of victory. We are called to live a life that matters. We are called to love God and to love people. And when we minister to others, we are the hands and we are the feet of Jesus. Christ is the path and Christ is the prize, and we need to keep moving forward. We can't make spiritual progress by looking back. Second Timothy 4 7. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. So, Hebrews chapter 11, that great cloud of witnesses cheering you on. Again, I don't think that there's actually the saints in heaven are watching you run your race. Maybe they are, but nonetheless, when you cross the finish line, they will be happy to meet you. They will share your success. They will be there cheering with you. Your friends and family in Christ will be celebrating with you that you cross the finish line, seeing Jesus face to face with a pleased look on his face, saying, Well done, good and faithful servant. That would be awesome. In the picture here, you see a group of people that obviously are into running the obstacle course and celebrating someone's victory, celebrating someone's accomplishment, celebrating the fact that they get to run their race together.