Running the Race

After last week’s presidential primaries, Mike Huckabee graciously conceded to John McCain. In his speech, he included a sports illustration and some pointed Scripture verses.

He began by quoting George Brett’s retirement hope. "I want my last play at bat to be that I hit an easy, just one bounce to the second baseman, and they throw me out at first, but I was running as hard as I could toward the bag when they got me. Because I want it to be said of George Brett that, no matter what, he played his best game, he gave it his best, all the way to the very end." And Huckabee certainly did just that.

He then quoted the Apostle Paul’s famous departure text in 2 Timothy 4:7-8. "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith…" (NASV), applying it mostly to his own political persistence. As a Baptist minister, Huckabee surely knows there is more to that verse, but most Americans are sufficiently ignorant of the entire text to know what he knows. The rest of the verse says, "Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing."

Huckabee went on to quote from Isaiah 51:1. "The prophet Isaiah said, and I've quoted it often, ’Look to the rock from which you were hewn, the quarry from which you were dug’" (NASV).

Outlining his personal quarry, Huckabee noted, "I know of the earth from which I have come, the humble circumstances of the son of a firefighter and who worked a second job, barely paying their rent on the rent house in Hope, Arkansas, where we lived; a mother who was oldest of seven kids and grew up in a house, dirt floor, outdoor toilets, no electricity when she was little; parents who, like so many across this country, wanted for their kids to have a better life. I don’t think they could’ve ever imagined that that better life would have included running for president and getting this close to getting there.:"

Mike Huckabee’s ministerial and Biblical knowledge was pointedly showing through in his withdrawal speech. It is good to understand our roots, better to comprehend our journey, but best to know our destiny.

I could wish Huckabee had put more context into the Timothy verse, stressing the eternal exodus all believers face because we "love His appearing." Indeed, accountability is sobering, as 2 Corinthians 5:10-12 outlines. "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences."

Interestingly, "terror" in this text is not reverential respect but raw fear. It comes from the work "phobos," the basis for our word phobia. Running the race for Christ is not a casual recreational activity but a sobering exercise in view of a future review and corresponding reward. It is encouraging that a major contender for the Republican presidential nomination understands that.

Dave Virkler