Let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Hebrews 12.1.
We who are running this race must run "with patience." Why with patience? Because the reward is not given at the start, nor in the middle, but at the very end of the course. Before the end is reached, none can guarantee whether he will be rewarded. One may fail at the last five steps. Once in a 200 meters dash, one man ran ahead of the rest by the distance of about twenty meters through most of the race, but then suddenly fell down with only two meters left to the end. In order to win, a person must be very careful. Before the end is reached no one can boast that he has the reward. Even the apostle Paul must say this: "Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on" (Phil. 3.12). If such was true of Paul, then what about us?
