Main Summary: Run The Race by Christine Caine is an inspiring book that draws powerful lessons from the world of relay racing to encourage readers in their journey of faith. Through personal stories and biblical examples, the author highlights the importance of running the race with perseverance, embracing your role, trusting in God’s timing, and passing the baton to the next generation. She also explores the significance of passion, overcoming obstacles, and understanding that great things take time and sacrifice. This book will motivate you to actively participate in God’s divine relay and make a lasting impact in your world.
Lessons You’ll Learn From This Post
1. We Are All Running The Relay
2. No One Ever Thought They Were Ready?
3. God Wants to Make Your Little Much
4. You Have A Role in the Race: Embrace It!
5. Handling Off Batons in the Race
6. Running The Race With Passion
7. Dealing With Passion-Slayers in the Race
8. Great Things Take Time and Sacrifice
We Are All Running The Relay
The author begins, with her inspiration for this book from her experiences of watching the women’s 4 x 100-meter relay at three different Olympic Games. From Sydney Olympics in 2000, until the Beijing Olympics in 2008. She describes the intricacies of the relay and how the US team lost the gold medal until 2008 in Beijing, where she saw the US team perform a perfect race and win the gold medal.
Throughout the three experiences, the author emphasizes the importance of handoffs and how they can make or break the entire race. She shares her admiration for the athletes’ tenacity and determination to win, despite the possibility of failure.
Her experiences of watching the relay at the Olympics allowed her to draw powerful lessons, some of which will be shared here.
She says, “Just like in the relay, our lives are not individual races but part of a divine relay, and how well we run our leg of the race impacts those who will run after us. We all have a baton to carry.”
The author encourages you to focus on your part of the race and to be intentional about passing the baton to the next runner. She says, “It’s up to us to run the race with perseverance, to stay in our lane, to focus on what’s ahead, and to be prepared to hand off the baton to the next runner.”
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No One Ever Thought They Were Ready?
The author uses the story of Kalli to exemplify this message. Initially, she believed it was impossible for her, a mother and homemaker, to make a difference in the fight against human trafficking. However, through her involvement with The A21 Campaign (the author’s ministry), she discovers her passion and purpose. Despite feeling unqualified, Kalli steps into her role as a shelter manager and becomes instrumental in saving lives, including a lady called Katja.
What is the message? Readiness! The author argues that many biblical figures, such as Moses, Gideon, Jeremiah, and Mary, didn’t feel ready to fulfill their callings, yet God used them regardless.
The author says that when God calls and sends someone, they are ready, regardless of their feelings. She encourages you to step out of your comfort zone and be open to joining the divine relay, where each person has a unique part to play.
The author also addresses the idea of impossibility. Stating that what may seem impossible is actually God’s starting point. She challenges you to consider what holds you back from fulfilling God’s purposes for your life and urges you to overcome self-doubt. The author highlights the importance of seeking God’s will and offering yourself to run the race, as God will equip and empower you to fulfill your roles.
God Wants to Make Your Little Much
The author notes that in the divine relay of life, you have a part to play, no matter how impossible it may seem. She emphasizes that God’s plan stretches beyond our limitations. So you must not underestimate the power of your involvement in His race.
The author emphasizes, “God calls you to step into the exchange zone not because you are mighty and strong. He calls you to take your place in the race because he is mighty and strong!” Even when you feel small, she says, remember that God is huge, limitless, and perfect. Your weaknesses and failures do not disqualify you but rather make you eligible for His divine multiplication factor.
She adds that, just as Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes to feed thousands, God can take your small offering and multiply it beyond your imagination. You may feel ordinary or uncounted, but remember that God uses ordinary people to achieve extraordinary things.
The author urges you to have great expectations for what God can do through you. Your limited resources are not a hindrance when God’s resources are limitless. The author assures, “Be confident that God will take your little and make it much.” Trust that God can multiply your not-enough into more than enough. Believe that your brokenness can become a source of strength and qualification.
You Have A Role in the Race: Embrace It!
The author reflects on the importance of embracing our place in God’s divine relay. She emphasizes that no single denomination or church can display all of God’s greatness, just as one star cannot reflect the entirety of God’s glory. The body of Christ, representing God on Earth, requires interdependence and unity among its members to effectively showcase God’s work.
According to the author, challenges can make you feel displaced or misplaced in serving God. Such as the feeling of obscurity and anonymity, frustrations caused by circumstances and trials, and the temptation to give up when promotion and timing don’t align with your expectations.
However, the author cautions against quitting or shrinking back from taking risks and urges you to stay faithful, trusting that God has a perfect plan and timing for your life. She notes that disconnection from God’s purposes can occur by leaving the race or trying to force yourself into a position not intended for you.
Using the story of David’s anointing as the future king of Israel, the author underscores that God chooses the part we play. Although Samuel the prophet, initially overlooked David’s potential, God saw beyond appearances and chose David, who was tending sheep at the time.
According to her, this illustrates the importance of embracing seemingly insignificant tasks and serving faithfully in obscurity. The author asserts that God prepares those He chooses, molding their character and refining their faith through time, circumstances, and trials.
Reflecting on her own journey from a local youth center to a global ministry fighting against human slavery, the author emphasizes the need to trust God’s timing and process. She shares that she didn’t need to know the whole plan in advance; instead, she simply embraced her place each day, even amid unpleasant tasks.
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Handling Off Batons in the Race
The author tells the story of Annie, a remarkable woman of God who is changing the world by mastering the art of handing off batons to others in the race. Annie joined the author and Nick (the author’s husband) in the early days of their ministry, where she led a research trip around the world and helped build the infrastructure required to facilitate their work.
Over the years, her work has gone from building teams face-to-face to helping build teams around the world. Through her efforts, God has mobilized ten offices in nine countries with various volunteers who do everything from cleaning toilets to winning convictions against traffickers.
Annie’s bold willingness to release batons she loves for the sake of moving God’s work forward is demonstrated in her decision to move from America to Greece to be with the man God led her to.
Even though she loved training interns in their US office and overseeing many programs she had developed, she knew that relocating would mean releasing batons that were very close to her heart. Despite the challenge, she welcomed the change, knowing that the future was in God’s hands and the race was his.
Using the life of Annie as a case study, the author encourages you to be willing to hand off your baton to others. She says, holding onto your favorite batons and never releasing them can have grave consequences.
She cites the example in Judges 2, where an entire generation grew up who did not know God because the previous generation had dropped the baton. The author believes that the key to avoiding such an outcome is to have a heart of open expectation for the next leg of our race, as Annie did.
Running The Race With Passion
On the subject of passion, the author shares the story of how her life changed after a friend asked her to cover his lecture on effective evangelism at a Bible college. She stepped into the classroom unprepared and with no recollection of what she taught that day.
A few weeks later, she noticed a young man, Nick, who had been in her lecture, swimming laps in her gym. They started having conversations, and Nick eventually fell in love with the author before she fell in love with him. Nick volunteered at the youth center where the author worked and started pursuing her. Eventually, they fell in love and got married.
The author believes that when you are passionate about someone or something, you do not take no for an answer. Passion will enable you to do what you would never do if you didn’t have it. When Nick asked her to marry him, the author continues; she was shocked because she believed she could accomplish far more for the gospel as a single woman.
However, one night, when she was speaking at a youth rally, she sensed God telling her that if she marries Nick, she will have a tenfold impact on His kingdom instead of onefold. The author notes that passion enlarged her heart and that God did not give her the baton of marriage to drop the baton of ministry but to help carry it. She realizes that God is the first one who passionately pursued her and captured her heart.
Dealing With Passion-Slayers in the Race
The author starts by recounting a lesson from their psychology professor. “You were all so focused on the little black dot in the center of the screen that none of you noticed the dominant image on the screen: the large white space covering the screen top to bottom, left to right.” Here, the author emphasizes the importance of recognizing the vast “white space” of God’s power at work, even when our attention is consumed by the “black dots” of trials and challenges.
The author introduces the concept of “passion-slayers,” which include negative circumstances, fear, failure, unmet expectations, relational strife, weariness, opposition, and hopelessness. She states, “Believers who’ve learned to conquer these tactics are well-equipped to handle just about anything the enemy can throw at them.”
Emphasizing the secret of contentment, the author cites the apostle Paul: “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.” She notes that true contentment lies in your internal dependence on Christ, not external circumstances. She encourages you to maintain your focus on Jesus and see challenges as opportunities for growth and strengthening.
The author also asserts that “No promise is too hard for God to keep. No prayer is too hard for God to answer.” Therefore you must press on, being reminded that with God, there is nothing that cannot be overcome.
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Great Things Take Time and Sacrifice
In the author’s words, “Great things take time to build and we must run our race with conviction while being mindful of that truth.” She emphasizes that the plans God has for us are so big that it will take generations to comprehend and complete his work.
The author believes that the quality of our legacy is directly determined by how we run our race and that we all will leave a legacy behind. She emphasizes that Jesus’s legacy of self-sacrifice is the richest, most remarkable, and most startling legacy in the history of our planet.
Therefore, as you run our race, you must always remember that Christ in you, who is working in and through you, is even greater beyond you, for he has been, is, and shall continue to be working through the ages.
The author explains that as we grow in the knowledge of God, we realize there is a race to be run, and we begin to embrace our place, catch the rhythm, and do the hard kingdom work. We carry Christ in us as he transforms us from the inside out and transforms our world through us.
The author emphasizes that we aren’t running against the other runners; rather we are a team, fueled by passion, all straining in sync against an enemy determined to stop us.
She notes that you must picture the name-engraved trophy, jeweled crown, and revelry and celebration that awaits you in the Winner’s Circle. But before that, is the Winner’s Cup, which connotes sacrificial love, the place of sacrifice, that even Christ our master drank from doing the will of his father.
In conclusion, this book offers profound insights into our journey of faith and the divine relay we are all a part of. Through powerful stories and lessons, the author emphasizes the importance of embracing your role, being willing to pass the baton, running with a passion, overcoming passion slayers, and understanding that great things take time and sacrifice. Also by recognizing your place in God’s plan and relying on His strength, you can run the race with perseverance and leave a lasting legacy that glorifies Him.
Finally, here is a question we’ll love you to answer.
What are some passion slayers that you have encountered in your race? How did you overcome them and stay focused on your goals?
We would love to hear from you, please leave your answer and comment in the comment box below.
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