The calling on our lives is to press on towards the goal of knowing Jesus and living for Him. The motivation for reaching this goal by running this race is that Jesus has already laid hold of us, and has run the race before us! Every day we must recognize that we have not yet arrived at the fullness of the knowledge of Jesus or the fullness of growing in the likeness of Christ, but that each step we take in this journey matters deeply in this life and in our eternal future.
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.