No Finish Lines
We fall into a trap of believing that once we hit a certain mark, reach a certain point, obtain a certain status, hit a number in our bank account, or finally retire, we will be happy. We set a goal and begin working toward it. We judge our self-worth based on whether we achieve it. We become obsessed and fixated on it. It could be a relationship, a promotion, or a physical goal but almost always, it tends to lose its value once it is obtained.
I have seen this play out in my own life more times than I can count. I think, or obsess, over a goal or target I "desperately" need, only to realize soon after that it didn't actually fulfill that need or desire. Jobs, vehicles, physical goals …. the pattern repeats.
Running a marathon was always on my bucket list. I truly enjoy running, but once I made it an official goal, my emotions around it shifted entirely. A few years ago I was putting in serious miles and then got injured, suddenly limited to a fraction of what I used to run. I was frustrated and hard on myself, down about something that was, when I really looked at it, an arbitrary target.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. After slowly rebuilding mileage over the past year, I worked up to a 26.2 mile attempt on a random Sunday morning. I finished it. It was a great feeling. It wasn't an official marathon event. I finished in my driveway with my wife and three daughters there to cheer me on, and that meant more than any finish line tape ever could.
Had to include the photo- love my girls!
But here is the funny part. The moment that run was over, life went right back to exactly what it was before. My kids wanted to go to the park. There were chores. We needed to make lunch. So we did all of those things. And within a few weeks, my brothers had found a 32-mile ultra marathon for us to train for together. Just like that, I had set another arbitrary goal that would quietly govern my happiness for the foreseeable future.
I say all of this because goals and targets can be deeply deceiving in their ability to produce lasting joy. What I have found is that it is usually the pursuit, not the achievement, that carries the real value. There is a dopamine release when you set a big, lofty goal and another when you reach it. But just like the law of diminishing returns in economics, things tend to lose their value. That car you had to have is great until the new model comes out. That relationship you thought was everything starts to feel ordinary. That job begins to frustrate you just as much as the last one.
The brain craves dopamine in such a way that it can convince you that you desperately need something, and then a few weeks or months later it has already moved on to craving something else. I believe we are wired this way, and I think the key is not to fight it but to understand it. It is not really about obtaining. It is about pursuing. We just have to be very careful about what we are pursuing and why.
Humans are designed to work and to chase something. We cannot assume that crossing an arbitrary finish line is what will bring us fulfillment. The finish line is almost never the point.
This idea draws from several sources, but a major one is Simon Sinek's book "The Infinite Game." Sinek argues that business is not a competition to be won but an endless opportunity to improve. He shows that companies operating with a finite mindset, chasing quotas or status markers, tend to fail long-term, while those with an infinite mindset, focused on constantly creating better experiences and outcomes, tend to become far more successful and resilient.
The same principle applies directly to our personal lives. Running 26.2 miles is a finite goal. Becoming the best runner I am capable of being is an infinite one. Getting the promotion is finite. Trying to help as many people as possible through the work you do is infinite.
When we start asking whether a goal is finite or infinite, it gives us a reliable indicator of whether achieving it will actually bring us lasting satisfaction. If it can be fully completed, it will likely lose its value. If it is the kind of goal that constantly challenges and shapes you without a definitive end, it is probably worth organizing your life around.
So the shift is this: from obtaining to pursuing. But what does that look like from a Biblical perspective? Spoiler, it probably ends up being about Jesus.
A Biblical Perspective
The Christian life is perhaps the clearest example of an infinite game that exists. Once we choose to follow Jesus, we enter a race that has already been won yet never truly ends. Jesus ran the race we could not. Now we follow him.
When someone comes to faith, we often use the word converted. To convert means to change something's form, function, or substance. That is exactly what happens. Once we are in Christ, we are immediately made holy, or made worthy of heaven, because of what Jesus did, not because of anything we achieved. See Hebrews 10:10: "And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." And yet at the same time, we begin a lifelong journey of becoming more like Christ. That is the ultimate infinite goal. It has no finish line. See Ephesians 5:1: "Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children."
Paul talks about dying daily and picking up the cross daily. This means continually turning away from what we know we should not do and choosing to live as Jesus taught us to live. To stop living selfishly, to stop living by the patterns of the world, and to orient our lives toward him instead. It will never be perfectly achieved, and that is exactly the point. There is always more ground to cover, always more to become.
Scripture speaks to this constant forward movement repeatedly.
Romans 12:2 — "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind."
Proverbs 27:17 — "As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another." A blade can always be sharper, and it needs sharpening precisely because it is being used.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 — "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you."
John 3:30 — "He must increase, but I must decrease."
Each of these verses points in the same direction. Not arrival. Not completion. Ongoing transformation.
And maybe that is the most freeing reframe of all. In a world that is constantly selling us finish lines, the right salary, the right body, the right relationship, the right title, the gospel offers something different. It tells us we are already accepted, already made whole in Christ, and that the pursuit ahead of us is not about earning anything but about becoming. There is no pressure to finally arrive because in Christ, you already have. What remains is the lifelong, joyful, sometimes difficult work of growing into that reality. No finish line. Just the next step, taken in faith, in the direction of the one who already won the race on our behalf.
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