Variety: Hebrews 12v1,2

“Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12:1–2)

Have you ever wondered why Jesus sent out his disciples two by two? No phones, no maps, and no bags – just each other and their annoying habits.

Watching the fifth series of Race Across the World has caused me to rethink Jesus’ strategy of sending them this way. Pairs of disparate disciples are about to discover what it’s like to get up close and personal. They will share the joy of unexpected hospitality. They will learn to bear with one another and carry each other’s burdens. Perhaps the partnership is the point.

Such is the premise at the heart of the BBC TV show that follows pairs racing thousands of miles across continents with limited cash, no tech, and just each other for company on sweaty thirteen-hour bus rides. Ostensibly a competition, what makes the show so compelling for the 5.9 million of us watching is not so much the racing, but imagining how we’d fare if it were us stuck with our chosen other.

I often rush through life as if the aim is to get furthest, fastest. I can be so preoccupied with my next task that I miss the moment with the person I’m with, or worse, believe they are a hindrance on my way to the next destination. But watching the show has made me wonder if that’s the way Jesus would have me run my race.

I suspect that the makers of Race Across the World know all this. With playful provocation, they challenge the contestants to be honest about their frailty, embrace their need for one another, and discover the joy of racing with others rather than against them.

I don’t think any of us needs to backpack through Asia to learn the same. We can experiment on this morning’s commute, school run, or first Zoom meeting, choosing to see others as companions more than competition.

Life does have a way of feeling like a race. Indeed, the Bible describes it as such: “Let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith” (Hebrews 12:1–2). But Jesus shows us a better way to run it — not alone, not in a hurry, but side by side. So that’s what I’ll try to do: run with others, eyes fixed not on the next checkpoint, but on him.

Tim Yearsley, London Institute for Contemporary Christianity