We Are Surrounded

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,

Growing up, as I did, competing in rodeo events, I can easily picture the type of scene the Apostle is painting here. The Greek games, of which the Apostle's original readers would have been so familiar, were staged in such a way that many of the spectators of the various events would also be competitors in the games. It was, as was the rodeo life I grew up in, truly a situation where the competitor is

• Watched
• Encouraged and
• Evaluated

by their peers.

Whenever I would complete my turn in whatever event I had entered, I would immediately take my place either

• In the stands or
• Behind the chutes or
• Somewhere along the fence

to watch the others who were competing. We were literally surrounded by those who had just done exactly what we were about to do or doing what we had just done.

The Word of God reminds us, as we run this race of the Christian life, that we are encompassed about, surrounded by, those who have already finished the very race we run. Some of them ran that race with more or less success; many of them stumbled along the way, but they finished their course. We can learn from them, be encouraged by them and be urged to pass the baton faithfully to the next runners by them. 

Don't see yourself as a lone runner in a rugged contest. See yourself surrounded by those who have already run, those who are yet running and those who will run after you.