midyear300Today marks the last day of June, and therefore it is the last day of the first half of the year. For some 2014 is flying by; for others the year is crawling along at a snail’s pace.

For me, the older I get the quicker the days, weeks and months go. As a child, the gap between Monday and Friday was a near eternity. When school was out and summer vacation began it felt like a lifetime would pass before I started back in the Fall.

Now that I’m older–pushing 30–it feels like only yesterday that Lauren and I were taking down Christmas decorations. It’s already the end of June and before we know it, we’ll be putting the tree back up on Halloween night (we’re crazy). Then the year will be wrapping up and then a new one will begin (Lord willing) that will fly by just as quickly as this one has.

When 2014 began, many of us probably made New Year’s Resolutions. Not long into the year I wrote a daily devo asking how those Resolutions were going. Here we are halfway through the year and I wonder how they’re going today? You might have left them on the wayside sometime around Valentine’s Day, but don’t abandon your dreams just yet! You’ve still got a whole second half of the year to go!

It’s not too late to fulfill that resolution. You’ve heard of Christmas in July, right? Why not “Resolutions in June”? Re-commit yourself to that resolution and put for the maximum effort to achieving it.

On a spiritual level, we have to keep striving as well:

Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.
And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.

1 Corinthians 9:24-25

Paul talks about running a race, and how in such contests there can only be one winner. Because of that, it’s important for every competitor to give the race his very best. You can’t slow down or slack off halfway through. The only way to ensure that you have the stamina to give the whole race 100% of your energy is to be in shape. Paul says runners are “temperate in all things.” In other words they are well-trained and thus are able to “strive for the mastery” (compete hard for the prize).

The thing about such races is, the runners are fighting to win the “corruptible crown.” They run in the Olympic Games in order to win the wreath that is placed on the head of the winner.

Christians don’t run for an earthly crown; we strive for the incorruptible reward of Heaven itself. Like Olympic runners, the Christian runner must also be well-trained (spiritually fit with a daily diet of the Word of God) and must not give up as the race drags on. We started this “race” to Heaven with the resolution that we were going to win the incorruptible crown at the end. Even when things get tough we can’t give up. We must re-commit ourselves to that resolution and strive to achieve the reward.