It is commendable that despite having more popular votes in snap polls against John McCain, Barack Obama never rest his laurels.

He was not never waiting for chance to repeat what his former Democrat presidential nominee, Al Gore had experienced during the 2000 Presidential elections. Back then, Bush narrowly won with 271 electoral votes to Gore’s 266.

As this week’s election results showed, Obama fought hard for every vote from Americans including territories that were traditionally Republican dominated. And he managed to achieved a winning feat of 349 electoral votes against McCain’s 174.

Winning is the name of the game

Are all these hard-pressed efforts necessary?

Well think Felipe Massa, the Brazilian Ferari’s driver. Early this month, he lost the Formula One (F1) World Championship title to Lewis Hamilton by a mere one point.

That same mere one point also made Hamilton the youngest ever F1 Champion at 23 years old.

In the 1998-1999 season of the English Premier League (EPL), it was one point that gave Manchester United its most successful season as treble winners. They edged Arsenal with 79 to 78 points to end the season as EPL champions.

In all races or games, every vote or point matters; that one point might just differentiate the winner from the losers.

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize…  No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

1 Corinthians 9:24,27

Living all the way for the Lord

Though the chances of us being presidential nominees or sportsmen to not come by all the time, but as Christians how are we making every minute, every day and ounce of our energy count for the Lord and His will for our lives?

For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation…

Acts 13:36

Taking our cue from both the Apostle Paul and King David, both are great examples of a Christian’s life that made sure every ounce of God’s grace upon their life was well-spent despite the adversities.

Both not only ended the race well, but from the start till the end, they did what they did with passion, excellence and purpose.

Likewise, I believe each of us need to know the race route that has been marked out for us and complete it in our own generation.

With understanding who we are in Christ- our identity; our destiny; His presence, His promises and the Holy Spirit- we can be confident of achieving all that we need to for His glory.