Because of my recent focus on Joy – someone brought this verse from the Bible to my attention: “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross…” Hebrews 12:2.

So beautiful! I certainly concede that I cannot begin to comprehend the magnitude and scope of the grace of our Lord. His suffering as well as his infinite atonement for all of our pains, sorrows and sins… I have sometimes wondered how He did it, but my mortal brain goes into overload and I just know this is something I will accept with faith. 

Now in Hebrews we get a clue as to how it was done – For the JOY that was set before him. Even Christ focused on JOY in order to endure the cross. As we follow Him, we should follow this example as we bear our own crosses. Which takes me to my second discovery around this chapter in Hebrews. 

Right above this statement (in verse 1) are these words… “let us run with patience the race that is set before us.” 

Wow – these words reached right into my soul – the race that is set before us. I visualize that sometimes I am running this race of life with a community, sometimes with a small group of friends or family, sometimes on my own, but usually with my husband. There are many races set before all of us. At this moment in my life the race is against cancer and I am sharing it with many of you. The larger race with cancer has been shared with Mark for many years as together we face a variety of diagnoses for him as well as our children. 

Two days ago Jackie and I went to watch The Chosen in theaters. We were touched by many of the scenes and afterward discussed them together during a late dinner. I shared these scriptures with her along with my thoughts. She was excited because she had just given a talk and used that very passage as the basis for her testimony of joy. We talked about the way people face those things which come their way. How will we face whatever “race” is in store for us next?

What other races are set before me? Am I running with patience? 

The secret is to combine these two lines – …run with patience the race… Looking unto Jesus. Hopefully I see Him at the finish line! And to be honest I spent the past days thinking that the scripture had said the PATH before us, not the race. I kind of like “path” better, just for my own visualization…

The photo shows Mark and I on our wedding day – 35 years ago in August. We didn’t know what was before us but we chose to face the future together. His first bone tumor was discovered just 9 months later. We are now quite a bit older and much more wise. We still have a lot to learn and currently we seem to be taking an honors course…

Could we ever have imagined the race set before us?

Click here to watch a short video that Kimberly just put together. I like to see us young and carefree, and all these years later I wouldn’t change a thing about our life together.

Update – We went to the hospital on Wednesday for a doctor visit and to be admitted for chemotherapy. Because of the continuing fevers and night sweats they determined that we would be admitted but would wait another 24 hours for an additional set of blood cultures. Mark also needed a unit of blood before chemo could be administered. Twenty-four hours later he was well enough to begin but this did push our schedule back another day. 

I came home a day early to fulfill some obligations as well as wash sheets and prepare for his return tomorrow. 

Here is a longer cake cutting video for fun – and if you watch it now you will see it with lame, stock music until I figure it out or one of my talented children make some changes…