The race of life

Life is a race; it is as straightforward as it sounds. No amount of psycho-massage and therapy can change the truth that it is a race. Come to think of it, even the life of man (human being) actually begins with a race.

It is estimated that once a man engages in sexual intercourse with a woman, there is the release of more than 400 to 500 million sperms at every ejaculation. The sperms start to swim upstream in the woman’s reproductive tract toward the fallopian tube.

It may take a sperm about half an hour or an hour to reach its target. Others may even take days. The time for sperms reaching their target in the womb varies. However, sperm can live up to 48 to 72 hours. Of the millions of sperms, only a few hundreds make it to the fallopian tube and only one at most times gets to fertilize with the egg.

Your life actually begins with a race in the womb. Every human being is a natural-born survivor that is designed to survive even in the most unsavory situations that confronts you in life. Once in the world, you do not cease to run, neither do you cease to live by your surviving nature.

You have to be fast in everything you do in order to be in real-time. You must as well learn to adjust and endure situations if you are going to make it. Humans are creatures of time, bounded by time. You need to run as fast as you can with strength if you want to fulfill destiny and purpose in this world.

The ability to run the race of life would demand that, like every other race, you must have a better understanding and appreciation of the principles and regulations governing the race of life. Your ability to win any competition or sport is to be able to not just train well but also understand the rules of the game. Rules are everything.

It can make and unmake you. Rules bring sanity and order to everything. You need to know these rules that govern the race of your life here on earth.
Currently, the greatest challenge of humanity is the inability to have an appreciation for the truth that there is a race let alone to apprehend and comprehend the nature of the race.

The good news here is that everyone running this race is already a champion. The world apparently is a champions’ stage, designed for champions and champions alone. Every single soul walking on the face of the earth has had to run and win a race to be here. You are therefore running this race with champions.

This understanding alone should help you appreciate that to make it here on earth will not take comfort but actual determination and perseverance. Unfortunately, people’s ignorance of this truth about the nature of the race they are running is what makes people want to give up at times in life.

Another paradox that is not comprehended is the fact that even though you are in a race yet you are not in competition with anyone. Your race and competition in life are with yourself and your time. As I said, humans are creatures of time. The good books mentioned when Moses, an Old Testament prophet, prayed and asked that the Lord taught him to count or number his days (reference: Psalm 90:12).

Your success in the race of life will demand that you know the accompanying principles for the race. Like the natural athletic race with its own set of rules, you are to familiarize yourself with the rules of the race of life, lest you be disqualified. Let me share with you some of these rules that would surely help secure your victory.

Know Your Track:

Every athlete running a race does not run in a vacuum but on a track. The number one principle you must know in running the race of life is the principle of knowing your track. Your track then consists of; your purpose, your calling, your assignment, your strengths, your boundaries, your limitations, your environment, potentials, talents, and gifts.

People easily fall in love with people or at worse envy other people and in return desire to be like them; thereby losing who they are and what they have been called to do; that is to say, losing a sense of their track.

You must know that there are no two individuals with the same assignment, purpose, weakness, strengths, calling, limitations, etc. You are you and very different. Concentrate on the race that is set before you in your track. Your success begins with you knowing the track within which you have been placed to run.

Stay In Your Track:

Once you get to know your track, stay within the confines of your track. Make no mistake of desiring or wishing for another man’s lane or track. Refrain from pushing other people out of their track so you can be in that track.

Many times people desire the track of other people, thereby, sometimes doing everything possible to eject them from their own track so they could be there. Listen to me, you don’t have to push anyone down in order to rise. No need to dim someone’s light in order to have your light shine. Don’t kick someone out of his or her track. You will never be successful in their track. Stay on your track!

Know Your Aim:

It is a dangerous thing to run without an aim. One of the writers of the New Testament letters, Paul speaks of the consciousness of his race in life.
He said, “…Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly…” (1 Cor. 9:26). What is the aim for doing what you do or are doing? You must be so aimful and sentient of your aim in every single move of yours including the littlest things if you are going to be successful in your race in life.

Lose Yourself of Every Burden:

No athlete runs with baggage at his or her back. Even in their dressing, they wear the lightest attire just to make sure they are not adding to themselves any unwarranted load. What are these burdens? I am talking about the burden of regret, unforgiveness, anger, resentment, bitterness, envy, jealousy, and a host of others.

You must also learn to lose yourself to friends who interfere with your speed, people who do not believe in you and what you do or are doing, and avoid them as much as possible. Lose yourself or your family also; they can be your greatest obstruction to speed.

In short, lose yourself of every weight that easily besets you. Anything you perceive as an obstruction to your race must be discarded and avoided.

You Must Learn Endurance:

People are mostly taught to be strong and yet the ability to complete the race of life does not only demand that you be only strong. There is a point in the race of life that strength will definitely fail. It only begins with strength but can never finish with strength.

You must learn endurance. Strength has to do with having the ability but endurance means being able to stand, especially, in difficult situations without changing your position or direction. Most people have strength but only a few people are able to endure.

This explains why many people easily give up on their dreams, marriages, businesses, ideas, aspirations, and plans in life. You are a survivor from birth even before you became a clot of blood in the womb. You can’t give up now. Be enduring whilst you keep moving.

Constantly Practice Self-Control:

A man without self-control is like a city without walls. He or she may come crushing at any given moment. People can enter in and out of it without any restraints. You must be full of self-control in order to control the flow of things including people in your life.

You must practice control in your eye, in your mind, mouth, tongue, hands, emotions, belly, ears, etc. You cannot fall for anything and still stand for something. If you do not stand for something, you will fall for anything. To stand for a course will demand nothing but uncompromising self-control.

Conclusion

In conclusion, one truth that stands sure is that you are not trying to be successful. You are already successful. You are a born champion; you are not trying to be a champion. Success is in the very fabric of your being. You won the race to be here on earth.

That same victory is with you. You can’t give up now or at any time. Keep moving! You have already won the race with over 500 million people. Nothing is impossible. Yes, you can. If you cannot, it means you have chosen not to continue not because it was impossible. Rise and be the champion you are.