uh oh, wrong race?

"...and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus..." Hebrews 12:1b-2a
"For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."  Matthew 7:13-14

I've been training lately for my first half-marathon.  It's actually my very first race ever.  I've been running for several years now, but never any great distances or in an organized fashion.  But now with that slightly-longer than 13 mile race in the near future, I am running with purpose and determination.  A lot of time and energy will have been put into use by the time the race-day finally arrives.
I worry wonder a bit about race-day.  Being that I have never been to a race, I am concerned that I won't be able to find the number distribution table or the starting line.  Or, worse yet, what if I run the wrong race? There are several other races taking place that day.  Some shorter, some longer, some walking, some wheelchair.  What if line up in the wrong spot and run the wrong race?
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Our lives are kind of like that, aren't they?  We are told in Hebrews that it is like we are running a race.  Others have run the race before us and have finished well & now it's our turn to run.  We are told to get rid of the stuff that might hold us back or weigh us down and we're to run with endurance.  But, I think, a major part of this verse comes with these words, "the race God has set before us".  We, before all else, must make certain we're running the right race.  In other words, what good does it do us to strip off every weight that slow us down and run with endurance, if we're not even running the right race?  It would be like me training for this race for months only to run the wrong one.  What good is that?
But what is the right race?  There are many to choose from.  Many.  The world has all kinds of different paths laid out.  Some easy, some difficult.  I think looking a bit further into the scripture, Hebrews 12:2 says "We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus".  If Jesus is at the finish line of the race you're running - you're running the right race.
Oh, but this is difficult as well.  Many believe they're running a race with Jesus standing at the end.  Many believe they are looking at him and keeping their eyes on the path he is directing.  Many are doing and serving and teaching and leading and talking and writing.  But who they see at the end of their race, is not Jesus.  He may be similar, he may look and talk and act very close to the Jesus of the Bible, but he is subtly different.  Hebrews 2:1 says "We must listen very carefully to the truth we have heard, or we may drift away from it."  We must know truth.  Absolute truth.  And what we lack in memorized knowledge, we must investigate through Biblical study. Otherwise, things that are close to truth or sound like truth or seem-like-my-God would-say-it's-truth, become truth.
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I heard some quotes this week from a fairly popular book that I was blown away by.  A book that some refer to as "finally providing understanding about the trinity and how God, Jesus and Holy Spirit work together".  Do these quotes sound like truth?  They did to me when I first read the book.  Honestly, I didn't even notice them.  They didn't stand out as falsehood.  And I wonder how many similar close-to-truths many of us believe that set us running on the wrong race-path.
 
"I am the best way any human can relate to [God] or [the Holy Spirit]"
~truth - John 14:6
"[God]: 'I don't need to punish people for sin.  Sin is its own punishment, devouring you from the inside.  It's not my purpose to punish it; it's my joy to cure it"
~truth - Romans 6:23, Romans 2:16
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Certainly I don't intend to begin any arguments about books.  My intention is rather to offer a warning that there is so much out there specifically designed to entangle us in non-truths.  And it's so similar to the Truth, that it's easy to get it mingled together.  Believe me - I know firsthand.  I am forever, unmingling things I've heard and read.  And we're warned in 2 Timothy 4 verse 3 and 4 of what is coming (& might already be all around us).  "For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound & wholesome teaching.  They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.  They will reject the truth and chase after myths".
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We must take what every teacher, preacher, leader, author is telling us and verify it against the Bible.  We cannot simply assume that they are feeding us truth.  We must make sure we're running the right race, the race that God laid before us and where Jesus is standing to receive us when it's completed.