Destination Known

It's called the Spartan Ultra Beast, and it was the single most difficult physical challenge I have ever endured. I say endured because it was roughly 30 miles up and down Killington Mt, with 52 different obstacles along the way each one designed by a sadistic race director determined to ensure that less than 50% of the 386 athletes selected from thousands of applicants actually found the finish line. Everything about the race was a mystery, save for the start/finish line.I literally had no idea what I was getting myself into when I applied, as the race organizers made it abundantly clear that this event was about the "unknown" and we were to fear that which we did not know. It was the first of it's kind in the history of endurance sports which helped Team Spartan build and hype the fear factor - nobody had ever done it and only a short list of people associated with the event knew what awaited us when the gun when off.

At the starting line, I had a sense of peace despite the fact that I had no clue how the miles would unfold or how much physical torture lay ahead. I looked around and saw fellow competitors nervously preparing Camelbak's, Powerbars, and salt tablets and I got the sense even the most tested and hardened athletes knew that they couldn't have properly prepared for a race about which they knew nothing. But here's what I did know and what I focused upon....the finish line. I knew, regardless of how nasty, ugly, difficult, relentless, uncomfortable, and painful the course and the day would be, it would eventually end.
The terrain and the obstacles were indeed unknown, but I knew what the finish line looked like and I knew that if I kept my focus on the finish - despite what I encountered along the way - I'd persevere. I also knew how incredibly amazing it would feel to finish, to be one of the 162 competitors receiving the coveted Ultra Beast medal. It turned out to be 11 hours and 36 minutes of sheer brutality, the unknown slowly became known as the race moved along (at a 27 minute per mile pace for me!), and I did finish under the cover of darkness in a driving rainstorm with temperatures falling into the upper 40's. I was bloodied, bruised, battered, but not broken. I had endured the day because I had not dwelled upon the unknown, keeping my focus instead upon the known.

Each day we face the unknown as the course of our lives unfolds before us. You've heard the phrase "Nobody knows what tomorrow may bring" and it's true. Sometimes life is brutal. Very often, it sucks. We are bloodied, bruised, and battered but we don't have to be broken by the challenges we face. What's known is how it will all end and Who will never leave us, regardless of how nasty, ugly, difficult, relentless, uncomfortable, and painful things get. Zephaniah 3:17 reminds us that "The Lord our God is with us, always" and  John 3:16 lets us know what awaits, what is known “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  This is how it ends for Believers.  

So move forward in faith my friends, focusing on the finish, upon how overwhelmingly incredible and amazing it will feel to be Home with the One who never leaves or abandons us along the way, regardless of the obstacles we encounter. BELIEVE.