Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
HEBREWS 12:1–2
Sunset in the mountains can take a thousand different forms. On a stormy day, clouds may blanket the peaks from view entirely. On a clearer evening, alpenglow can light up the western snow-covered slopes after lower elevations are already in shadow. For people east of the mountains, the looming shapes often become deep purple silhouettes against the golds, pinks, and oranges of sunset. As the sun drops, those brilliant pink clouds fade to purple and then to gray. Sometimes on a cloudy day, mountains in the distance may be under clear skies, bold against a brilliant strip of golden sky along the horizon. We may have our favorite colors, but who’s to say one sunset is better than another? Each day’s weather is different, and there is no competition.
As we journey through our lives, it’s the same. Each of us is an individual, and each of us enjoys and endures unique “weather”—our families and circumstances, our own strengths and weaknesses, various blessings and losses, triumphs and setbacks, hopes and regrets. How then could any two of us have an identical race?
It’s all too easy to compare and judge ourselves—and others—as though there’s one standard course with identical benchmarks. But our Lord is far too creative for that. When He made human beings in His image, He breathed into us infinite possibilities. Though our potential is all too often stunted and twisted by sin and sorrow, His grace abounds even more. Just as no two sunsets are the same, each person’s journey can be brilliant and one of a kind as well. We are not called to be like everyone else, but rather to follow God faithfully on the course He has marked out for each of us.