It is New Years Eve two hours and seven minutes the clock will reach that magical moment when we move from one year into the next. When I was young time moved slowly. I waited eons for the arrival of Christmas. Now the days come quickly. I no sooner clean up the packages and pack away the decorations than it is time to start decorating again. Sometimes I wonder if someone over wound the cosmic clock. I feel like Job when he said his days were swifter than a runner and that they skimmed past like boats of papyrus or flew by like eagles swooping down on their prey. Job 9; 25-26 The speeding clock makes it vital that we stay in step and in shape. I want to “run in such a way as to get the prize“(1 Corinthians 9:24) I don’t want anyone or anything to cut in and keep me from obeying the truth. Keeping in step with the Spirit and functioning at peak performance is no easy task. On this side of fifty I fully appreciate the feeling of gratification and accomplishment as well as the agony of de-feet. Staying in good spiritual condition requires a big time commitment and vast amounts of energy -- physical, mental and emotional. The pay-off, of course, enhanced strength, confidence, and spiritual intimacy. “You have to train the distance to race the distance.” This year my goal is to tend to the ups and downs of my daily running rhythms and adapt them to his so that I may find increased strength and endurance so that I might one day hear those coveted words, “Well done thou good and faithful servant.”