Crystal Writes A Blog

🎵Proverbs 29: No End in Sight

Imagine if you will, a runner. He came to win the race. He’s practiced, he’s ready, and he’s dressed to run. But when he gets to the track, er tracks(?), no direction is clear. Instead of the track knowing and showing the finish line, it just keeps asking, “Finished?”

Proverbs Chapter 29 includes the well-known verse…

Proverbs 29:18 KJV
[18] Where there is no vision, the people perish: But he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

https://bible.com/bible/1/pro.29.18.KJV

Various translations render the word vision as things like revelation, prophecy, divine guidance, or prophetic vision. And the word perish is replaced with “cast off restraint,” “run wild,” or “lose self-control.” I like the way it reads in The Message Bible: “They stumble all over themselves.” Because without God’s help and guidance, and the finish lines He has laid out in His Word, you’ll get lost in chaos and confusion. With no end in sight, how can you even know what direction to run?

It works the same in all of life. We start, when kids are little, asking “What do you want to be when you grow up?” And we don’t ask that because we think they really know or have their college path already decided. We ask because we want to know what excites them, so we can steer them toward a finish they will be happy with.

Human races, on the track or otherwise, often involve competition and include winners and losers. But there are some of us in this world that don’t like competition. For me, even winning at something is difficult because I feel bad for anyone who doesn’t win. That’s why I like God’s race where everyone who crosses the finish line gets the prize. Paul the Apostle states it this way…

Philippians 3:14 WEBUS
[14] I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. 

https://bible.com/bible/206/php.3.14.WEBUS

1 Corinthians 9:25-26 WEBUS
[25] Every man who strives in the games exercises self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. [26] I therefore run like that, not aimlessly. I fight like that, not beating the air, 

https://bible.com/bible/206/1co.9.25-26.WEBUS

2 Timothy 4:7 WEBUS
[7] I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. 

https://bible.com/bible/206/2ti.4.7.WEBUS

In case you have never read it, there’s a great poem about winning races called “The Race” and it even has its own website at https://theracepoem.com/ plus a lot of other places online. It’s a poem filled with heartache and victory, and it’s absolutely worth reading.

And this is the perfect place to end with a song I once thought I’d sing on an album. It’s called “This Race I Have Begun,” and it’s written and sung by Bobbie Shoemake…

March 29, 2026 - Posted by Crystal A Murray (aka CrystalWriter) | Bible, Christianity, Proverbs & Wisdom, Proverbs Series, Walking With The Lord | Bible, finish line, finish strong, get the prize, Proverbs, Proverbs 29, run with The Lord, running, running the race