2 Timothy 4

The Arlington International Racecourse is located in Arlington Heights, Illinois. The track officially opened in 1927 with 20,000 people as Jockey Joe Boliero won riding a horse named Luxembourg to victory.

In 1981 Arlington was the home of the world’s first million-dollar thoroughbred race: The Arlington Million.

The result of that race is immortalized in bronze at the top of the paddock at Arlington, where a statue shows jockey Bill Shoemaker riding John Henry as the horse charged down the stretch, coming from way back, to catch The Bart at the wire.

It was a thrilling come-from-behind victory over the 40 to 1 long shot, and the statue celebrates Thoroughbred racing’s inaugural million dollar race. The sculpture’s name is “Against All Odds.”

The sculpture is captivating; it is mesmerizing. You can feel the tension, hear the crowd, see the strain and effort of both horse and jockey. The horse ran the race and, against all odds, became the champion, receiving the victor’s crown at the end.

Running the race is, of course, a paramount objective at Arlington. It is also a paramount objective of the Christian. I don’t mean that each of us must go to a race track and run a marathon, sprint, or even a trip around the track’s oval.

Rather, I am referring to running the race in our witness and daily walk with the Lord.

The Apostle Paul uses the race analogy often in his letters to the churches of his day as an illustration of the dedication and focus the Christian should have in spreading the gospel of Christ. Consider the following passages:

“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. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. but I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.”

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

“An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.”

2 Timothy 2:5

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,“

Hebrews 12:1

Ultimately, Paul says:

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”

2 Timothy 4:7

The horses competing in the race rely on the jockey and their training to carry them through at the race. They only have their own resources to rely upon, and on that day in 1981, John Henry pulled out the stops and won the race, receiving his crown. It was a perishable crown, but that is not what the Christian race is all about. The Christian’s crown will be presented by the Lord Jesus Christ and it will be an imperishable crown. In the words of our Lord:

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Matthew 6:19-21

Train yourself physically, mentally, and spiritually for the race that is set before you. Keep running the race even when it is hard and you are tired. Remember that you have the Holy Spirit to strengthen you, to guide you and to give you the words to speak as you witness to others of Jesus and His love.

The race we are in as Christians is not one on which to wager. Our running is secure in Jesus and through His grace, power and might we will, like Paul, fight the good fight, finish the race, and keep the faith.

Father, I pray that You would enable me to finish the race You have set before me. I pray, too, that I would keep the faith You have given me and that I would persevere to the end as Your child, through Jesus Christ my Lord and my Redeemer.

Many of us have heard the old hymn, Rock of Ages, and we probably also have heard the description of Jesus Christ as the “Rock of Ages”. Further, we likely have heard preachers compare Jesus to being our Foundation, Security and Surety. Those concepts are surely accurate, but they are lofty and sometimes hard to think of in real terms that we can touch and feel.

We were in England and visited Stonehenge – now there were some rocks, and big ones too. It was so hard to imagine how the people created this monument with such immense stones. They are truly “solid rocks”.

But then, when we were in Yosemite National Park, we saw a physical illustration of a Rock of Ages!

El Capitan is a peak that rises 7,569 feet high in the Sierra Nevada range of central California in Yosemite National Park. Its exposed monolith rises 3,600 feet above the valley floor.

El Capitan ‐‐ according to the National Park Service, El Capitan is the largest monolith of granite in the world! “Capitan” is Spanish for “Captain”. The monolith is awesome in its scope, size, power and strength!

If we are Christians, our Captain is Jesus Christ, upon whom our hope is built. He is our Rock, and He will provide us the strength and ability to stand when the storm comes. He will preserve the believer even if all may desert him/her, and He will preserve us from that supreme disquiet that attends fear, anxiety and worry.

Christ’s comforts will not fail; they will be the believer’s strength and song; and they are the believer’s an anchor of his soul, sure and steadfast, in this life and the next. The Apostle Paul says it this way:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, and I have remained faithful. And now the prize awaits me – the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on the day of his return. And the prize is not just for me but for all who eagerly look forward to his appearing.

2 Timothy 4:7‐8. [New Living Translation]

The Christian life is certainly not without difficulties, in fact, Jesus promised that we would have problems and trials. But, we can stand on the Rock and know that, whatever buffets us in life, nothing can take us away from our Captain.

For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 8:38 [New International Translation]

When the believer comes to the last moment of life, our hope in Christ will remove both the terror of death and the power of the grave. Christ will carry the believer, covered in the blood and righteousness of Christ, to God the Father where the believer will be accepted by God and given life eternal.

Praise Him, our Rock, Captain, Redeemer and Savior, now and forevermore!