"Do your best, and He will make up the difference," she said, as I have heard said a thousand times before. It's a standard theme, and it is a good theme. I think I wasn't the only one in that room having a mental image of carrying my load, struggling for the finish line, and then falling short, face hitting the dirt. Then Christ comes along and carries me to the finish line, and at long last the race is done.
Yes, it is SO true that I, by myself, do not have it in me to be perfect. Yes, it is SO true, that I rely on Christ's redemptive power to get me where I want to be. Yes, I know that without Him I am nothing. I openly admit to my imperfection.
I love my Savior, and I want to submit a different imagery for his divine influence in this race of life, one that reflects my own experience of Him.
I have been in the post stumble phase my whole life. I feel like I'm in this perpetual state of stumble and He is there the whole time, lifting me up.
At times, it HAS felt like He carried me, but let's be honest here, I didn't enter this to be carried. I came to run, to finish, to become something I wasn't before. So I don't want to be carried.
I want to be strong, like Him. I want to be quick, like Him.
He wants me to be strong, like Him. He wants me to be quick, like Him.
We want these things because we know this race isn't about getting to the finish line, it is about becoming finished. Is He not the "finisher" of our faith? (Hebrews 12:2) Has he not prepared the way for all of us?
Christ won, that we all might win, if we will only try.
There is no competition, there is no clock. This isn't really a race, this is training, crucial, defining, developing, and deciding training.
He is the one who helps me do better. He is with me each step, one at a time. He teaches me how to hold myself. He teaches me how to find the strength, so I can build my strength. He guides, encourages, and sometimes when I am too weak he lifts me and holds me.
The more I walk with Him, the more it feels like we are one, like I'm not falling out of step so much, like somehow I'm truly becoming what I was meant to be all along.
Strength and power flows all through me. Some logical part of my brain tells me that this isn't my strength, because there is no way that this comes from me, so of course it must be His. Yet He smiles, and tells me it is OURS. OUR strength, OUR power, OUR run.
Christ doesn't complete for us, he doesn't finish for us. He completes US. He finishes US. He PERFECTS us. Christ doesn't make UP the difference, He makes the difference, He IS the difference. and He is already at it in your life, whether you know it or not.
