The Race of Life

Hebrews 12:1 KJV

Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

I didn't get saved until 1977, almost a full year after I graduated from High School. But even before I was saved I had a spiritual (though misguided) inclination toward spiritual things. It was likely in the Spring of 1975 when my Junior year English class began to work on writing various styles of poetry. One of them I wrote seems to have some credence in the Word of God:

THE RACE OF LIFE

Starting the race, and full of grace,

The runners leave the blocks.

Full of vigor at the pull of the trigger,

They are soon racing the clocks.

The first corner's there, like a whip they tear,

Around its final bend.

They know it is good for with it they could,

Reach a lifelong end.

Using their lead to make people take heed,

They begin the straightaway.

Effort's the key; it's no cup of tea,

To put up with all the dismay.

They're in the last bend; it seems there's no end,

To its curving, twisting lanes.

But when it's all done, and they see they have won,

They realize it was worth the pain."

By Marvin McKenzie Spring 1975