Shiny Shoes and Cool Hairdos

For the last two Saturdays, we've been on the run - literally.  Benjamin is in his senior year and it is Indoor Track Season.  I don't think this existed back in the early 80's when I was in high school.  At least our high school didn't offer it.  This weekend we attended the Last Chance Qualifying Meet at LSU.   Benjamin is in the lower left hand corner preparing for his race.

Here he is lining up for the start:

And here he is speeding toward the finish line, running so fast it is just a blur...

Benjamin won his heat in the 400 meters and improved his times in both the 400 and 800 meters. After his run, we took a picture of him outside and then went and got a bite to eat.

Benjamin's Rooting Section: Me, Tricia, Benjamin, Mom, Dad, and Benjamin's coach, Chip Guillotte

The previous week, he ran at McNeese State University in Lake Charles.  It was a meet that had athletes from all classifications from Louisiana and Texas.  Benjamin's race is the 800 meters.  He has run the 1600 and 3200 meters, but has settled in on the 800 meters as 'his run.'

Except this time, his coach asked him to run in a new race - the 400 meters.  The coach wanted him to run that race for the speed.  Benjamin had never run the race before in a competitive meet and was a little nervous.  In fact, I was nervous, too!  The guys he was running against looked like grown men.  They had aerodynamic hairdos' and very fancy running shoes.

In the photo above, I know you can't see them real good, but the athlete on the right has some fancy gold shiny track shoes.  They sparkled like Dorothy's ruby slippers in the Wizard of Oz.  I took one look at the guys he was competing with and I had a bad feeling.  Their build, their shoes, their hair...  They just looked the part of  very serious track and field athletes and I knew Benjamin had his hands full.  I prayed that he wouldn't get left behind.  I prayed that it would be a competitive race.

On your mark, get set, and the starter's gun went off.  The runners were sprinting around the track.  In indoor track, 400 meters is two laps (whereas in outdoor track, it's only one).  Benjamin was right in the mix on the first lap and on the second lap he closed the distance between him and the only runner that was still left ahead of him and at the finish line, he leaned in and won the race!

So fast, he's just a blur!

Sometimes you don't need to read a devotional.  They just happen to you!  After Benjamin won I immediately began thinking about how I let external appearances affect my judgment.  I allowed the flash and show of shiny shoes and cool hairdo's to equate with success in the race.  It reminded me of the following verse in the Bible:

But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart. 

1 Samuel 16:7

In that passage Samuel was anointing the next king.  He was looking at Jesse's sons and saw the oldest, Eliab, and thought, surely, this guy is the next king.  He 'looked the part.'  And that is when God told Samuel the verse in the bolded part above.  See, isn't like us.  His ways are better than our ways.  His thoughts much higher than our thoughts.  God doesn't look at the external in determining success or the winner in the race to eternity.  He looks at the heart.  Just as Benjamin's heart drove him to victory despite his non-shiny shoes, we as Christians "win the race of life" not by how we look from the outside, but by who (JESUS) controls our heart.