I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all. --Ecclesiastes 9:11
A newspaper headline once read, "Jockey Beats Horse over Finish Line." The jockey, indeed, crossed the finish line a length before his horse and 20 lengths before the rest of the contestants. The would-be winner was thrown out of his saddle. His horse, which had tripped, followed right behind him. The victory went to the second-place finisher--"Slip Up."
One race official said the jockey and his horse were "so far in front that only a freak accident would stop him." All of us have faced life's unexpected events. The author of Ecclesiastes said, "The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong" (Ecclesiastes 9:11). He made apparent the fact that people are not controllers of their own destiny.
You are probably already very aware of this fact, but life is completely filled with unpredictable experiences. Someone once said these events "seem like stones dropped into the gears of human ingenuity." A family survives a fire that destroys everything they own. A healthy man contracts a crippling, deadly disease. A senior citizen loses everything in a scam deal.
There are important life lessons we can learn from everyday experiences. That may sound like a general statement, but if you think about it, it becomes a powerful one. One lesson we can learn is not to trust our own strength, knowledge, or skill, but instead depend on God in all of life's day-to-day happenings. Only He knows what is going to happen from moment to moment. For us, life's race isn't over until the Lord says it is.
PRAYER CHALLENGE: Ask God to help you trust Him for the unexpected and unpredictable events life throws your way. Pray that He would give you faith to finish the race until He comes again.
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