Stay In The Race… Hello weekend readers. I just finished reading about the early Presidents we have had in our country. Their lives were indeed filled with good, bad, ugly, and trials beyond what I know I wouldn’t want to tackle. We have 31 days to decide who we want for our President and on November 5th we vote. One may think that this is the toughest and meanest of all elections but, after reading all about our early presidents—not so much. In other words, being mean, lying, even working through subterfuge, is sadly a part of our election process. UGH! No wonder many get out of the race. Who wants failure, setbacks, humiliation and suffering?

I want to share with you a story about staying in the race. Here goes: “There was once a man whose life seemed characterized by failure. At the age of 22, his business failed. At 23, he ran for political office but was defeated. So he turned to another business, which failed when he was 24. At 25, things started to turn around when he was elected to his state’s legislature, but at 26 his love died. He had a nervous breakdown at 27 and was defeated in his run for yet another political office. This series of defeats would continue until he finally won a seat in the U.S. Congress at 37. But that victory was followed by defeat for re-election at 39, defeat for election to the U.S. Senate at 46, defeat in his run for Vice President at 47, and then again for a seat in the Senate at 49. Finally…at the age of 51, Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United Sates. And many scholars credit him with holding America together during the country’s darkest moment in history. Thank God he stayed in the race!

I mused on this story and many of the others. Why? Their tenacity, their “want” to be a leader of our country. Yes, there were those who wanted the job for prestige instead of true patriotism, but these men had failures and setbacks yet they stayed in the race (no matter their true intentions). Lincoln, however, was one with more setbacks than all of them. Some of his opponents would say “you can kick him to the ground but he’ll come back swinging.”

Some folks want to say our country is worse than ever, but if you read history that’s just not true. In fact, our history of America is about as up and down as you can get. Hey—we’re people and we have problems. We have failures, setbacks, suffering, losses—it has been that way since the Garden of Eden! We need to be like President Lincoln, who many times said publicly: “this will not derail the future the Almighty has planned for me.”

The Apostle Paul experienced setbacks, failures and a LOT of suffering but he stayed in the race. In Romans 5:3-5 [Message] Paul reminded us that: “There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling short-changed. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit!”

Think about Lincoln’s story one more time. He had losses from age 22 to 51…and then the Civil War, and so much more! I think God is telling us that no matter our age, God has a future for each one of us and God is calling us to embrace that by faith and trust. Not only that, in God’s power we have the ability to persevere through any of the setbacks that come into our lives. We can do this because we have put our faith in God which gives us the ultimate promise that our hope for today and all of our future is found in the very One who holds our life in His hands.

When was the last time you prayed for perseverance? Often our prayers go around this word when setbacks make us feel down and out and defeated. Don’t do that! Boldly pray for perseverance no matter what you’re facing. You can trust God who will work through all the setbacks in your life so you can “stay in the race” of living the life God has for you. AMEN.