It's More Than A Race

Just when I thought it was safe to let my guard down a little while sending and receiving e-mails, I found out that there is a virus going around that even anti-virus programs can’t cure. Like the West Nile Virus, one can catch from mosquitoes, the computer version called the Third Nile Virus can actually be passed to humans through computer use and it only seems to affect those born before 1965. Scary huh? The symptoms are: *Causes you to send the same e-mails twice; *Causes you to send blank e-mails; *Causes you to send e-mails to the wrong person; *Causes you to send e-mails back to the person who sent it to you; *Causes you to forget to attach attachments; *Causes you to hit “SEND” before your finished with your message; *Can cause you to hit “DELETE” instead of “SEND” and *Can cause you to hit “SEND” when you should have hit “DELETE”. This new virus has been dubbed the C-Nile Virus, and I believe this could explain a lot of things going awry at my keyboard lately.

After attending our grand-daughter’s High School graduation, my wife and I became engaged in the inevitable discussion of, “How on earth are these young people going to make it in this world today?” After exploring money, housing, college, automobiles, marriage and so forth, I simple said, “They’ll find a way.” I concluded that our parents probably had the same concerns, and said the same things about us when we were exercising our wings preparing to leave the nest; and our parents, parents probably said the same thing; and their parents and their parents; perhaps all the way back to Adam. Some things never change, just the people participating. That reminds me of something. The circle of life was explained to me the other day. First we are children to our parents; then we become parents to our children; next we become parents to our parents; and finally, we become children to our children. It makes perfect sense to me, but then again it could be irrational thinking on my part, having to deal with this computer virus. I’m more concerned about what society is doing to me in ten years.

[Psalm 8; Hebrews 12:1-13] “When I consider heaven, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” In the great big scheme of it all, who am I, that God cares so must for me he sent his Son to save my disobedient miserable soul from eternal damnation? If you know me, you know I love auto racing, because it’s a lot like life. Day after day seems like lap after lap as we run the race of life. And it’s not a sprint to the finish. No, it’s an endurance race. There’s a lot involved to run either type of race. Although you may say, “It’s my race”, many people are involved in your race. Watching a race is easy to do, but running the race is totally different. As a participant every lap (day) is different and filled with hundreds of decisions to be made. Some decisions are repetitive and easy to make, then something different looms, forcing quick management and decisions to be made. Like that race car driver, we must stop for help every once in a while. We need someone to help refuel and refresh us, to encourage us to get back out there even thought our day isn’t the greatest and we’re laps behind everyone else. God says, let me help. He sent his Son to bear the burden of our sins and lighten the loads of life. Even when we get lost in our C-Nile ways, God is waiting at the finish line for those who finish the race with a persevering heart of love.