The Prize

Competency calls, telling me I can make it in life. So I climb higher, like a champion claiming her prize. Only, I don't want the obvious sort of prize made from silver or gold, instead I want the kind made by the One who makes all things beautiful and new. This world offers the types of prizes that I can touch or taste, but God offers the prize of new life. What type of prize are you striving for? "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize."-1 Corinthians 9:24-27