Stay in the race
As many of you know, I have been reading (and really enjoying) John Ortberg’s book, If You Want to Walk on Water You’ve Got to Get Out of the Boat. On page 147 Ortberg writes the following:
“In the movie Chariots of Fire, British runner Harold Abrams runs against the Scottish champion Eric Liddell and loses for the first time in his life. The pain of failure is so great he decides he cannot race again.
His girlfriend, Cybil, says, ‘Harold, this is absolutely ridiculous. It’s a race you’ve lost, not a relative. Nobody’s dead.’
Harold moans, ‘I’ve lost.’
‘I know. I was there. I remember watching you; it was marvelous. You were marvelous. He was more marvelous, that’s all. On that day the best man won. . . . He was ahead, there was nothing you could have done. He won fair and square.’
‘Well, that’s that,’ Abrams says.
‘If you can’t take a beating, perhaps it’s for the best.’
‘ I don’t run to take beatings—I run to win!’ Harold shouts. ”If I can’t win, I won’t run.’
Cybil pauses, and then says to him firmly, ‘If you don’t run, you can’t win.’
On Sunday morning I encouraged you to be a light in your world. I urged you to be a true friend to those who don’t know Christ. I said to deliberatly be friends with people who don’t know the Lord. Then, wait for your moment and share your testimony.
Some of you are putting this into practice. Others, perhaps, have already failed. Maybe you lost your testimony on your job. Perhaps you had a perfect opportunity to share your testimony, and you chickened out. So you throw up your hands and say, “I quit! Trying to be a Christian who has an impact is just too hard!”
This is no time to quit. The stakes are too high. If you marred your testimony, try to correct that. If you chickened out of sharing your testimony, resolve not to chicken out the next time. It is not time to get out of the race. Remember, “If you don’t run, you can’t win.”
Have a great week in the Lord. I am praying for you!
One Response 
I read this post with great interest, because I’ve doing quite some research about this topic lately. Only, I should have wished I had found it before.