Who Put it there? Lord, you know...

"Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us," Hebrews 12:1

Inasmuch as I have obviously overlooked it, did you catch it?

Yet my own thoughts went to the one who showed me the question.  There was but one response.  Lord, you know.

Who set this race before us?  Some may call it the rat race.  Some may remember a song by the group Alabama. I'm in a hurry to get things done, I rush and rush...

Life is ongoing.  Another artist had a song called This Highway Leads to Glory. In it he describes the path of his life.  That there are all kinds of exits to take you off of it. 

Still others write about life being a story.  Life is a story.  It's his story.  It's about how God so loving those in this world so much that He couldn't sit back and allow the punishment of sin destroy it completely. 

But going back to what caught my eye.  That is set before us.

God puts a life within us to live. Many legislators think it's their purview, their right, to redefine life.  That's not a right of the created.  That alone belongs to the Creator.  The pottery has no right to tell the potter, why did you make me this way? Why did you bring me into this world?  Why did you make me male and not female? Why was I born here and not in that other country? Why, why, why?

Sound somewhat familiar?  It should.

"Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?  Romans 9:22-24

"What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?"

From the moment that we are a being until the moment we close our eyes for the last time, what is before us is set before us by God, our Creator.  Life isn't about what we make of it but what God's making of us through it.  Of how our lives intersect and interact with others.

The only other influence is the destroyer of life.  Satan.  He wishes nothing more than to be God. He will try to go to any lengths to do so.  He wants the glory of God. To be worshipped.  He is but a created being who fell from God's Plan for him.  He has to obey the rules set for him.
In that plan it has to do with working out our Salvation in Christ. 

Another Scripture says that God causes all things to work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose.  Satan will try, up until he is cast alive into the Lake of Fire, to reach his goal.  That created being can't cope with the fact that he has barriers.

But this set before us thing.  What is set before us?  Choice.  What is life if it isn't choices? We can choose to go right or left. Choose to go up or down. Choose a yes or a no. 

God does have a wonderful Plan for you and me.  But the greatest part of it is this life that is set before us is but the beginning. What is a lifespan in light of eternity?  It doesn't even register.  

When we realize that Jesus doesn't hate us, that He isn't out to grind us in the ground. That He DOES want what's best for us. Who else would be able to see every possible aspect and outcome of any thought we could ever have?

Jesus loves me this I know. For the Bible tells me so. Little one's to Him belong, they are weak but He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me! Yes! Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me! The Bible tells me so. 

Consider how deep the love of God is for you.  Consider that the life in front of you wasn't meant to be walked alone.  Prior to sin, Adam and Eve knew that perfect fellowship with the Lord Jesus.  Nobody born since has had that specific kind.  But we can come close. We can choose this day to acknowledge Him and see where He wants to take us.  Remember we are the sheep, not the Shepherd. Where He leads me I will follow. Hmm. Yet another hymn.