When I was in junior high, I ran track and field. I competed in the 800-meter dash, which consists of two laps around the track. I was pretty good at this race, but there was one guy on my team who always beat me.

I will never forget Brian. Brian always outran me. Every ribbon I won was for second place because Brian always got first place. But, there was one magical and glorious day in my track and field career that I will never forget. Brian was sick and stayed home from school, which meant he could not compete in the race that evening. Was I finally going to have my moment to shine? Was the first place ribbon going to be mine?

Yes! Finally, the ribbon was mine! It didn’t matter how I had won it, I was just happy that I had won.

Not long after my victorious race, the track coach suggested that I try running cross-country. Now understand, I liked to run, but those cross-country folks are crazy. It is one thing to run laps on a flat track that simply goes around and around, ending exactly where it started. But cross-country is insane; running up and down hills, through valleys, around obstacles, and ending up somewhere else entirely different when the race is finished. To me, track was the simple and easy way to run, and cross-country scared me. So I quickly said, “No thank you!” and signed up for another year of track because I wasn’t willing to do something different. 

Sometimes we treat our life’s purpose like I did the idea of running cross-country. We look ahead in our life and see hills, valleys, and obstacles and think that there is no way we can succeed, so we settle for the easy track. However, the easy track just goes in circles and never really takes us anywhere. The cross-country course takes us somewhere; it is much harder, but it takes us somewhere. God never said His purpose would be easy, but He did say He would be with us all the way to the finish.

Accept the challenge to live out the adventure God has called you to.