A New Day...A New Race!

This coming Saturday, June 18, is the Red Bank Classic 5K with over 1,000 runners participating.  In fact, this is the first time since the outbreak of COVID-19 that the race has taken place in full. (The last time was June 2019).  So it’s only natural that people are excited about getting out into the community and running together again. I know I am. After all, for many people, being able to run a 5K race like this signifies that we have turned a corner and that it is in some ways a new day and thus, we might say, a new race.  

Once again, we will have a team from our church, Shrewsbury First Assembly, made up of about 10 runners (well, maybe a few walkers!). It’s a great way for us to participate with one of our neighboring communities. We will all be wearing our “Caribbean blue” t-shirts with the words, “It’s A New Day!”  Our hope is to not only run well, but to send a message of encouragement to the other runners, to let them know about our church, and most of all to let them know that, through Jesus one’s life can be made completely new. He gives to us a new day. He sets us upon a new race. 

The Apostle Paul’s words are true and cannot be repeated enough: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17 – NIV) Or, as God said through the prophet Isaiah, “See I am doing a new thing!” (Isaiah 43:19 – NIV) 

I know for sure, a couple of the runners from our church can testify from their own personal the truth of those scriptures. At one point in life they were running a very different kind of race than the one they are running today (and now I’m not talking about a 5K!).  Previously the course they were on was leading them into dependencies, dysfunction, pain, and sin. They were in actuality running further and further away from God.  But when Jesus came into their lives, he set them on a new course. Today they are living a completely different kind of life.  For them it is both a new day and a new race.

I want to say that, I am very proud to be running alongside of these friends and brothers in Christ for I get to experience alongside of them the joy and newness of life Jesus has brought into their lives. I get to run with them not only in a 5K race, but in the new race that they are now running. Each time I’m with them—at times physically running alongside of them—I am grateful and even overwhelmed by the new things that Jesus has done for them.

I trust that you know as well the joy of the new day and the new race that Jesus can bring. 

Have a great day! 

- Pastor Tim Harris