Keeping up with the...

I am guilty of a human flaw I never thought would plague me: Keeping up with the Joneses.
Not in the monetary sense. I am happy financially.
And I'm not in a mad dash to climb to the highest wrung of the social status ladder. That doesn't matter to me.
My race has become one of reaching certain life benchmarks by a certain age: Marriage (27 or 28). Children (A few happy years after marriage). Owning a house (Somewhere right around the time of my happy marriage). Working happily in a career (Wherever I happen to live as a happily married woman).
Just recently I have become acutely aware I am falling far behind. I am losing in this race of growing up. I am a failure.
Or so I've been telling myself. And God.
As I watch friends and family stride beautifully through these benchmarks, far ahead of me, I do a good job of cheering their progress and accomplishments. I am happy for them.
But somewhere inside me lurks another, very different emotion: envy. It makes my muscles tired and my lungs weak. It saps the strength God has given me for MY race. So, depleted and angry, I begin to wail to my Father that I have failed in this race of life.
I had not realized until today how much that must hurt my Lord. There He is running right beside me, calling out encouragement, giving me Gatorade and pointing out the finish line, and all I can do is turn my gaze to the benchmarks I can't seem to reach before everyone else has checked them off, fueled up, and moved on.
I had not realized until today that if I look at my life as a failure, that means I look at God's work in my life as nothing. And that is far from the truth.
God's work is everything. It is the reason I've even made it this far in the race. He saved me and set me on the starting blocks. And He is sanctifying me as He and I run together, fighting for every step, focused on the finish line.
We may pass some of those benchmarks I so want to check off. And we may not. I just want to learn to be happy in the race God set out for me. I don't want to keep up with the Joneses. But I do want to keep up with Jesus.

Wherever you are, be all there.
--Jim Elliot

So I run with purpose in every step. I am not just shadowboxing.
--1 Corinthians 9:26

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.
--Hebrews 12:1-2a