From Glory to Dust: What the Finish Line Really Reveals

We watched the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, a race that lasted only two minutes but made me think of the entire scope of life.

The horses are magnificent at the starting line: absolutely beautiful in all their pageantry. But by the time they crossed the finish line, they all looked the same....brown.  Covered in mud because the track was wet.  My first thought was, "There's got to be a lesson in that!"

We all start with potential. Some of us shine in our careers, some gather accolades, others raise families or build businesses or chase dreams. And in the thick of the race, we look around and compare: who’s faster, who’s ahead, who looks best doing it?

But at the end of it all — the finish line of life — the mud is the great equalizer.

The Bible puts it plainly in Ecclesiastes 3:20: “All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return.”

Whether you were the CEO or the janitor, whether your name was in lights or never known outside your hometown, we all leave the same way. Titles fade. Wealth doesn’t follow. Applause goes silent.

So maybe the goal isn’t to win the race in the world’s eyes, but to run it in a way that honors the One who made us.

So wherever you are on the track today — just getting started or feeling weary near the finish — run with your eyes on eternity. That’s the only victory that matters. Because in the end it comes to this:  whether or not we knew Jesus. Do you?

Junior Alvarado rides Sovereignty to victory in the 151st running of the Kentucky Derby on a very muddy track.  (Photo by LEANDRO LOZADA/AFP via Getty Images)

P.S. After the race, when they interviewed the jockey, Junior Alvarado, the first thing he said is how he wanted to thank Jesus. It was only three weeks ago, following a riding accident, he was laying in a hospital bed asking God to heal him so he could ride in the Derby as planned. God did! And this man gave God all the glory, a super example of one of our songs, God Be The Glory by We Are Messengers.