I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. – 2 Timothy 4:7
Have you ever been in a position where someone is asking or telling you to go somewhere, and you don’t want to? Your friends are going but you feel that there is no need for you to go and you are quite content to stay where you are. This can happen in church, for example during altar calls, attending prayer meetings, or small groups. Sometimes it gets to the point that all your friends are going and so you feel bad. In a way, you feel pressured or guilty for not wanting to go. You may even think that your friends may be disappointed with your choice. The next time they ask you, you go just because they want you to.
Even though it is good to have people ask you to join them, it is not good to accept for the sake of it or for the sake of not being left out. What’s good for them to do may not be good for you. It doesn’t mean that you are scared to go up to the front at church, to join a certain group, or to do something. All it means is that it’s not right for you at that time.
We’re all unique and as the saying goes “different horses for different courses”. Your course will be different from your friends. Even though you might be in the same race, you won’t have the same strategies or experiences. The race you run will not be the same as the one your friends run even though you are running towards the same finish line.
It doesn’t matter if you run it differently from your friends…heck you probably won’t even be dressed the same. All that matters is that you stay in the race and finish it. The last thing God wants you to do is to drop out. He wants you to keep using the strategies and tools he has given you to complete the race. For example, God doesn’t really care if you go up to the front with others or stay in your seat to pray. All that he cares about is that you keep praying. God doesn’t want you to stop following, praising, and worshipping him.
If you’re the type to do things in private or the type to be out in front, so long as you are doing it for God and not for others, then what other people think is unimportant. You are running your own race. You’re not running your friend’s or a family member’s race. It’s okay to cheer them on and to ask them to join in. If they don’t want to, don’t make an issue of it. Their race is not your race.
As Christians, we all run our own unique races. God made us as individuals, and he didn’t use the same template on all of us. What fires your faith will not be the same as someone else’s. Even though we are all using the same tools e.g. The Bible and prayer, the results won’t be the same. How we use those tools will depend on how God wired us and our life experiences. The important thing to remember is to keep running the race and to keep the faith.