Championships

As I write this, several significant sports championships are underway. The Stanley Cup Finals are about to declare a champion of the National Hockey League. The finals of the National Basketball Association will begin this week. Major League Baseball will finish their regular season today and start their playoffs on Tuesday.

All of these championships represent years of hard work and focus upon a singular goal. Every soon to be champion should be admired for their efforts and talents. They will receive praise and financial rewards. However, the thrill of victory will only be temporary. Next season a new champion will likely be crowned and their glory will fade. Sure we will remember their victory but its significance will fade. The Washington Nationals won the World Series last year, but failed to make the playoffs this year.

What kind of championship will yield lasting glory? The apostle Paul writes in Philippians 3:8, “More than that I count all things as loss in view of the surpassing glory of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.”

So Paul is saying that the only thing with lasting glory is to know Christ. The writer of the book of Hebrews tells us how to run this race of life. “Therefore since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2

So we must put off sin and run toward Jesus. Then eternal glory is ours.