In September 2019, our swat team volunteered to participate in Tuscaloosa’s 9/11 Memorial Stair Climb. The event honored the FDNY, NYPD, Port Authority Police, and EMS who lost their lives on September 11, 2001. It sounded like a good cause, so I joined them. I thought I understood the assignment…

At Coleman Coliseum, the organizers instructed us on the rules of the climb. How hard could this be, I thought. The stairs stretched from the basketball court below to the nosebleed seats above. That’s a lot of stairs, I thought. I figured we’d climb them a couple of times and be done. That’s when they told us we’d go up and back down again, thirty-two times. One hundred and ten flights. (2,200 steps up and 2,200 steps down)

What have I done? I thought. This is a terrible mistake! I should have read the instructions before I volunteered for this. I am a decade older than the oldest guy on the team, and my “dad bod” is more “robust” than it should be. I wasn’t sure I could do it.  

After just two up-and-down cycles, my legs began to burn. Only 30 more to go, I thought. This is going to be a long day… But, after endless climbing, despite the growing pain, I finished the course. I did not, however, ever volunteer for this event again.

“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.” (Paul in 2 Timothy 4:7)

For Paul, following Christ came at a terrible cost. For many, it still does. Jesus said, “The gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it.” (Matthew 7:14) Not that it is difficult to be saved, it’s just hard to walk the walk once you are. Self-discipline, self-denial, and persecution do not make for an easy life. God says we cannot succeed without His Spirit living in us. 

We all want to finish well. Along the way, however, we fight forces from within and without that stand in the way. The more comfortable “easy way” leads to destruction. The Bible says many will take that route. Paul was not interested in that path (nor am I). He said, “Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.” (Philippians 3:13,14)

One day, all of life’s pain will disappear into distant memory. Every sin that tries to lure and bind me will finally lose its grip. Every humiliating failure will sink into a sea of forgetfulness. And, the ancient enemy and accuser of my soul will be eternally destroyed. All of this is at the end of the course. It is worth the sacrifice.