The End?

You know that figure of speech about coming to the end of oneself? Someone will say something like, "I finally came to the end of myself."

I've said it before. Here's the thing: I've come to the end of myself. Several times. Which means, guess what: I haven't come to the end of myself yet. And guess what else. We never will, in this lifetime, come to the proverbial ends of ourselves.

I feel like I'm in a relay race, where I finish one leg of the race, only to pass the baton off to myself again, to start another leg. When the apostle Paul talked about running the race with endurance, maybe it wasn't a marathon, so much as a relay. 

Hopefully, when I've come to the end of one leg of my race, I am passing the baton off to a stronger, faster version of myself, able to endure and persevere through the next leg. That is, perhaps, the measure of success. It's about becoming better, more like Christ. It's a becoming not a finally-finishing. 

Maybe holiness is simply enduring and running and never giving up, rather than arriving at "our testimony." You know, the one where we tell about how we used to be that way, but now, finally, Christ has done His work and we are this way. Whew...it was tough, but I made it. Finally.

That day will come, of course. Eventually. But for now, it isn't even the point. The point now is to "throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And 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, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart...Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. 'Make level paths for your feet,' so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed." (Hebrews 12)

The point now is RUN.