“…let us run with patience the race that is set before us…” Hebrews 12:1
We bought a basic chess set last week, and got into playing it again after a long time. Samantha proceeded to knock the socks off me in the very first game! She’s a brilliant strategic thinker, and it doesn’t help that our hearts are so in tune; she always seems to be able to read my next move. A great attribute as a friend, but certain📷ly not as my opponent on the chess board!
After a few games, I got thinking about the pawns on the board. What’s so significant about these pieces? Well, at first glance – nothing much! They are the smallest pieces on the board. Their movements are limited. They are the most dispensable. We normally don’t think twice about sacrificing these pieces for the sake of winning the game. There are folk in life (and let me include myself, because there are times I, too, feel this way) who find themselves feeling very much like a pawn on the chessboard of life. The glamour of the “royal”position of king or queen, is not possessed. The strength and elegance of the knight is not had. Neither is the fast-moving, go-getter skills of the rook or bishop known. One just gets moved along from pillar to post it seems. One just faithfully moves forward, one step at a time, (by the way the pawn has not option of turning back; it can only move forward block by block) while it seems the rooks are passing by at lightning speed. When one finally makes it to the destination, one is dispensed of, and replaced or exchanged for something more “attractive” or more “powerful”. The game goes on, and one is left on the sidelines, watching while others play the game, maybe a little quicker, maybe with a little more vim, but no less faithful or more successful than one was doing it.
Is that you today, my friend? Do you feel you’ve been dealt a bad hand in life? Do you feel that you are plugging away faithfully while others get the pat on the back? Does the little you do even count, you wonder.
Well friend, I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news. Let’s start with the bad: There is always going to be someone who does it better, faster or more skilfully than you can ever. There’s always going to be someone who is a better teacher, a better doctor, a better preacher, a better cleaner, and the list goes on. You say: “Gee thanks Wayne! I feel a whole lot better…NOT!!!”
Well here’s the good news: God is not asking you to be better than the next person. He is asking you to be the best that you can be! He has called you for a task that only you can fulfil in the way that you do it, and He has gifted you with the unique abilities and talents that only you can bring to the table. There’s not another you on the face of God’s green earth. There’s not another me (and I’m sure my enemies will be over the moon to hear that!)
You are uniquely and wonderfully created in the image of God! There are seeds of talents planted deep within you spirit that are taking root and shooting forth! There are ideas, visions and potential with which your spirit is impregnated which in God’s appointed time and season are going to be birthed!
So, Dear Fellow-Pawn! Let us continue faithfully doing what God has called us to do. Be an encourager! Be an uplifter! Be a hope-instiller! Oh, and one more piece of good news…no in fact it’s GREAT NEWS! Unlike the game chess, where it can go either way, in the “chess game of life”, if you are a child of God, then WE ARE ON THE WINNING SIDE! The devil has been defeated, and we have the victory in Jesus’ Name! If you are not yet a child of God, what are you waiting for, my friend? There’s always room for you around the Father’s table!
So get out there, and keep running the race set before you!
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