Win the Prize

Have you looked at the sports section yet? Did your team win? Are they moving up or down the rankings? I love sports, both as a spectator and as a participant. I like to compete and to win, because it feels like we (I) have accomplished something. I am finding though, that my 40 something body does not allow me to do as much, so now I participate vicariously through my kids and other kids in town. 

Do you ever think about winning at life? What would that even mean? The old saying goes, “That he who dies with the most toys wins,” but it is countered by the more meaningful phrase, “he who dies with the most toys, still dies.” One day your name may appear on the sports page as the winner, but some day it will appear among the obituaries.

The Apostle Paul also paid attention to sports and compared them to life, saying, "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable (1 Corinthians 9:24-25). He compared life to competing as an athlete, but he wanted to make sure he was competing for a prize that could not be taken away. Likewise, Jesus also said that we in this life could build up treasures for heaven (Matthew 6:20).

These imperishable prizes are not trophies, sports cars, 4-wheelers, boats, guns, or tractors (even green tractors!). All of these things are perishable prizes. Either they will go away or you will go away from them. So what kind of prize is really imperishable?

The only things that are going to survive beyond this life are people, so the only prizes that last beyond this life are our relationships, specifically our relationships with God, and other people who will be with God. Therefore, for us to compete for an imperishable prize we need to make sure we know God and are growing in relationship with Him. We come to know God by knowing who Jesus is, what He has done, and believing in Him for salvation. By focusing our life on growing our relationship with God we earn the eternal imperishable prize of a fantastic life with Him for eternity.

Along with that relationship, God wants us to have the prize of many, many eternal relationships. So the more we introduce people to Jesus, the more people will join us in eternity. The more time and energy we spend loving others and building them up, the more we are preparing for eternity. This life is a training room for eternity, and the more we spend time training for an imperishable prize, the more prepared for eternity we will be. Furthermore, by training hard for eternity, we actually get a prize in this life of deeper relationships here with God and others, which adds a richness and meaning to this life that cannot be found by seeking after any other prize.

Don't waste your life playing the wrong game and seeking the wrong prizes. Seek first the Kingdom of God, and all these other things will be added to you!