Wednesday Morning Devo

“Gunshot”

Have you ever been to a track meet? I’ve never been much into running. My older sister says I run like a duck (Personally I think it’s more like a platypus).

I remember watching the movie “Cool Runnings” when I was a pudgy little kid. The movie is about these track stars that are really fast, and they become a bobsledding team for Jamaica in the Olympics. I remember watching the fastest two guys on the team as they ran a race in the beginning of the movie. While they ran they didn’t hold their hands in fists, like most people do; instead, they had their fingers stretched out flat, and they pumped their arms as they ran like they were karate-chopping the wind. Since they were fast, and they held their hands flat, I decided that if I would run with my hands like that I would be fast too!

The next week at football practice I was ready. The coach sent us on a lap around a big fence, and I put my plan into action. I chopped through the air and ran as hard as I could. Like usual, I ended up being one of the last guys around the fence. I still didn't give up. Through the whole practice, anytime I had to run, I ran with my hands flat out, pumping my arms really hard. At the end of practice my dad took me aside and asked what I was doing. I told him I was running like the guys on the movie, and that my flat hands made me faster because there was less wind resistance. Somehow dad kept from laughing in front of me, and told me to never do that again. It turned out that I looked ridiculous and the parents watching us practice were laughing at me the whole time!

I know, I know… how embarrassing!

Needless to say, I never did take up track as a sport. But I did get to see a few track meets, and I decided that if I were ever to be involved in track, there is only one job I would want. I would want to be the guy that shoots the gun!

At the beginning of every track race a guy shoots a gun. It’s not loaded with real bullets, but it makes a pretty sweet BANG when the guy shoots it. At the sound of the gun, all of the runners take off. The gun is the thing that sets the runners in motion, if there were no gunshot, the runners would never leave their starting blocks. I think that in real life there are things that do the job of that gunshot.

You are on the starting blocks right now. We’ve already talked about life as a race, how we have to run hard and fast so that we can live out the purpose of our lives. You’ve been challenged to live for God. God has brought you to this point. He knew you would be reading this this morning. So what’s it gonna take to get you started? What will it take to move you off of the blocks and into the race? What is your gunshot? Are you ready to get moving?

Talk to God about these things for a few minutes.