The Kentucky Derby

On Saturday I watched my first ever Kentucky Derby. It wasn't intentional. I happened to be at a friend's birthday celebration and we were waiting for a couple of people to arrive before we went out to dinner. I have nothing against the Kentucky Derby. It's just never been on my radar.

My knowledge of the Kentucky Derby consists of the following. 1) It's a race for horses 2) people drink Mint Juleps 3) Derby Pie probably is served 4) people wear hats. If you are a Kentucky Derby fan...please forgive my ignorance.

Here's the shocking thing that I learned yesterday. The race is one lap. All that hooplah. All those people. All boils down to that one lap.

So, I watched the horses parade to the starting gate. It was MUDDY!!! Really muddy. Those gorgeous, beautiful, amazing horses were about to run in some significant MUCK.

The gates opened and the horses took off running!! One lap, just one lap. So much riding on one lap. It was phenomenal to watch. It was breathtaking. As the race began to draw to a close I was enthralled to see the burst of speed as the horses came into the final stretch and they gave it their all to win the race.

The end of the race...one winner. The joy, the emotion. All attention was focused on the winner. The owner was ecstatic....I wonder how much money he won.

My personal takeaway. It is at the end of the race that you need to "go for it", "give it your all". It's the end of the year, the end of our homeschooling for four adventure and I am ready to be done. I'm tired!!! But the truth is...the next two weeks I need to give it my all. I need to finish well!!!

On a grander level, I believe that the christian life is like a race...there are several references to that in the New Testament. As life goes on, it is easy to get stuck in a rut. The truth is not a one of us knows the number of our days.

What if I lived every day such that it was the "end of the race"? What if today I lived like there was no tomorrow, loved like there was no tomorrow? How would that change how I spend my time?