DO YOU REMEMBER the children's story about "The Hare and the Tortoise"? The hare was a very fast little bunny, and also very sure of himself. He hopped way ahead of the little tortoise and stopped about mid-way in the race to nap. You know the ending the slow and steady tortoise was the winner.

I know a man that always gives the same response when asked, "How are you?" His standard answer is, "Barely creeping." Some-times it's hard to keep up the pace of daily living.

When I get on my treadmill for a walk and set it to a speed of three miles per hour, I have to keep walking for thirty minutes to cover my one and a half miles. A friend told me about being on her treadmill when she was so absorbed in watching a television pro-gram that she forgot to walk and fell off the end!

Paul said: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Timothy 4:17, NIV). Let us keep on today with Paul's assurance of a glorious finish in Christ no matter what our speed may be or how much farther we have to go. God keeps us going.