Losing In The End

Losing at the end

Years ago a world class bicycle race used some of the beautiful roads in the Alleghany Highlands as part of its course. I got up early and road out to where I could sit on the side of the road and watch the real riders go by. It was impressive, all the escort vehicles, the police, the officials on motorcycles, the camera crews, but most of all the incredible athletes on their state of the art bikes. I remember watching the lead rider go by. There was such an incredible gap between him and the peloton that I knew he was going to win. With a lead like that, I could have finished the race and won. After the peloton, the chase vehicles and rear police escort went by, I mounted my machine and pedaled home, wondering what it would be like for the guy I saw go by to be on the winner's stand. I turned on the TV in time to see the end of the race, and the guy with the insurmountable lead was caught in last couple of hundred yards and didn't even finish in the top 10. It reminds me of the Rich Fool. Actually, the one in the Bible is just one of many I have known. Before it really mattered it looked like he was winning, big time, but when the reckoning came . . . well, that's how he earned his name. David and Asaph knew a lot of rich fools, only like my sure winner in the bike race, they don't look foolish at all when you look at them early on. In Psalm 37, David, and in Psalm 73, Asaph, watched these guys fly by seemingly unstoppable. It's enough to make you wonder*. Turns out that the lead rider I saw go by was not only competing against the best cyclists in the world but against physics--cold, unrelenting, the-way-things-are science. One study I read said that riding in the peloton allows a rider to expend 40% less energy and still maintain the same speed. Maybe it's only 20 or 10%, still, that guy out in front just couldn't overcome that difference. In the end, he lost. There are spiritual realities that are every bit as solid--more so even--than the laws of resistance, momentum, aerodynamics, and inertia. Psalm 14 says "The fool says in his heart there is no God." One doesn't need to be a formal atheist to be guilty of that foolishness. Living as if God were not on His throne is sufficient. No matter how big their lead out on the course, that kind of fool will lose in the end. Jesus summarized it in a sober question,  “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36, NASB95) It's STTA (Something To Think About).  *Read David and Asaph's ponderings here.