“Cool Runnings” is a movie about the first Olympic bobsled team from Jamaica. It catalogs the difficulties and prejudices that they face as they try to break on to the Olympic scene. In their first run they struggled, but after a magnificent second run, they put themselves in place for a medal on the final heat. On their third run they were making great time until an equipment failure caused their sled to overturn. After a scary slide down the rest of the path, they come to a resting point at a final straightaway with the finish line in sight. In one of the great all time movie chill scenes, the captain is asked if he is okay. He responds by saying, “I’m going to finish the race, man.” The team then picks up the bobsled and carries it on their shoulders across the finish line, with all of their previous antagonists cheering them on for their fierce determination.

We need to have the same determination that these men did in our own spiritual race. They had worked too hard and too long not to finish the race, to accomplish what they came to do. They did whatever it took to finish the race. There will come a time in our spiritual race that our sleds will overturn. We may get discouraged by the suffering around us. We may be entangled and overtaken in some sin. But we CAN NOT allow ourselves to just quit. We must press on to finish the race.

The Hebrew author also assures that we too have a group of onlookers, cheering us on to the finish. In the previous chapter he talks about the faithful who have already finished their race, and how they now are there, cheering us on to victory. On top of that we have our brothers and sisters in Christ who want nothing more than for us to succeed. They are our own cheering section, giving us that extra push whenever the sled gets too heavy. For ourselves and for them, we must finish the course!