Keep running the race. Keep singing His praise.

I completed another lap the track, and then another. I was getting back on the proverbial horse after the holidays, travel, sickness, and a bit of general laziness had me on an extended vacation from running. I’m not very athletic- even a few laps at a time is a feat- so to keep myself moving, I brought along a playlist full of motivating songs that encourage me both physically and spiritually. The music gave me momentum and my feet pounded the pavement to the beat. Meanwhile, I was able to process and release all the pent up thoughts and feelings about the events of the day, not only because of the endorphins released by physical activity, but because my heart was encouraged by the lyrics that told me to keep going. 

As I ran, I noticed the people I was running past, or who were running past me. Walking the track was my 3-year-old neighbor and his dad, both of whom I knew could run faster than I can, but they weren’t that day. There were the buff military men and women training hard for deployment or their next PT test. There was a mom waking the outer lane with a baby on her hip, which made me feel all the feels as someone who knows how hard it can be to make things like exercise happen when you care for little ones. Eventually, she put her daughter down, held her by the hands, and let her try toddling toward the finish line on her own little legs. Everything in me wanted to cheer her on. 

As I was watching all these people, songs were streaming into my ear cheering me on. Songs about running the race and rising up and making it to the finish line together, and suddenly I felt a strong sense of camaraderie with these people on the track with me, some of them complete strangers, and also with the people who sang the songs that were spurring me on. I was so grateful that they were running, too, and that they were singing hope to me. 

I don’t know the life stories of most of the musicians on my playlist. I don’t know how many months or years ago they wrote and recorded these songs that now live on a little device in my pocket. But they’re people who are running toward the heavenly finish line with me, and out of the overflow of their hearts with the instruments of their gifting, they sing to me today, a woman they don’t know who is running around a track on a weeknight in an obscure little corner of the world. I was able to keep going and make it to my goal that night in large part because of the songs being sung in my ear, and it made me realize something:

We need to keep singing songs of hope for each other. 

Life is hard. The world is a mess, and everybody’s tired. Some aren’t sure if they can keep going, or if they want to. Bruised by their own sin and the sin of others, battered by natural disasters and global pandemics and political unrest, worn down by daily discouragements and aging bodies. This world is not for the faint of heart, and people need hope. They need Jesus.

You’re probably a bit weary, too. But if you have Jesus, you have a song of hope to sing. Maybe you sing actual songs on a stage or hum to restless babies in the middle of the night. Maybe you’re gifted in some other way. Maybe God designed you paint or write or bake or give great pep talks or have a sense of humor that always lifts people’s spirits. Whatever you have to offer, the world is starving for it, because they are starving for God, and we are the singers of His song of hope. We are the light of the world, Jesus said, and the world needs it desperately. The people around us are aching for real hope delivered with love. At times, it might feel almost impossible for them to stay in the race. But if they just had someone singing a song of hope in their ear, they might find the courage to keep going.

Who might you encounter today that needs your song of hope? Will you sing?
For someone trying to make it to the finish line, it just might make all the difference.

“But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.”

Hebrews 3:13

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,  fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith…so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

Hebrews 12:1-3

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. “

Matthew 5:14-15

“…My only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.”

Acts 20:24b