The race

The finish line was near. The runner, sweat running down his brow, was already exhausted - in fact, he was bone weary. A few others have gone ahead before him. But for him, the goal of the race was not to win. The objective was to finish the race - come what may - within the given time frame. As he ran or even shuffled along at times, thoughts ran through his mind - "What if I fail again? What if I fall? What if my strength gives out before I reach the finish line? What if I never finish at all?".

Though there had been people encouraging him from the side to move on, the runner knew he had to run the race on his own. As he moved on, unexpectedly, his past injuries came back to plague him - injuries that he thought were completely healed. They slowly began to cripple him - until he thought that he could not bear it any more. Still - he moved on, again with the help of friends and family who were stationed along the way to give him a drink when he needed it. His energy was recharged slightly with each sip. His steps faltered again after a while. He was not running as fast as he thought that he could or should - because his injuries were continually plaguing him. Already, he was behind the time frame he had set in his mind. He should have been at the finishing line much earlier. Unseen new injuries added to the pain. He also very reluctantly picked up another burden or two along the way for fear of others being injured because of that burden. Still, with whatever little energy he possesed, he moved on - though his space was as slow as a snail by now - wondering when and if he would ever get to the finishing line.

Others, who were watching him could not understand why he seemed to be moving so slowly - after all, he looked fit when he started the race. Sensing their unspoken disapproval and feeling a little bit disheartened, he moved on - slowly trudging - his whole body aching. He was also getting dizzy from the lack of oxygen into his brain and thought he would collapse for sure. He almost gave up - but he looked up to his coach who encouraged him to take a break and then finish the race, pain and all.

After his rest, the pain did not subside by much but he moved on anyways. Soon, the finishing line loomed ahead.... The time was ticking away.. He wondered if he could make it-his injuries were acting up... Tick tick tick tick.... *shuffle* *pant* *shuffle* *pant*.. It was a miracle - he made it with a little time to spare!!!!

Exhausted, he dropped to the ground. He had almost no energy left. Lying on the ground and staring at the sky above him, his heart was exultant that he made it. Too weary to even speak -he thanked God in his heart for helping him complete the race.

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Have finished and handed up my parable assignment today! Thought I'd give it a go at writing the above narrative as a result of being saturated with the parables for the past few weeks - to put into words what I've been going through. Though it would have been better without the stress of the assignment, I am rather glad I did the topic. I learnt a lot about parables in the process.