Tuesday Brief
General Superintendent Max Edwards & Judy
May 5, 2026 Running For More Than Roses Last Saturday, a group of three-year-olds in Kentucky competed against one another for a blanket of roses. The race is a tradition dating back over 150 years to 1875. And yes, you guessed it, those three-year-olds were not human babies, they were thoroughbred race horses. The event has more than one name, and even a few nicknames – The Kentucky Derby, or the Run for the Roses, while some call it the most exciting two minutes in sports. It’s actually hard to believe how very big the Derby is there in Louisville. Churchhill Downs sees over a quarter of a million visitors between the big race on Saturday and the Friday running of the Kentucky Oaks which is a race strictly for the three-year-old fillies. Television viewership normally exceeds 15 million people, but maybe most incredible is the money! Hundreds of millions of dollars will be wagered by patrons on these two races, and the ticket sales to Churchill Downs for Derby Week usually approaches 1 billion dollars – billion with a “B”. Unbelievable! Now, I do not wish to glorify the Kentucky Derby, nor horse-racing in general. I am pointing out that we often put so much effort into things that have no eternal value, and this first-weekend-in-May tradition is a perfect illustration. But it’s just one example among many. We humans seem markedly good at putting our energy and resources into things that won’t last. The Apostle Paul wrote about this kind of empty pursuit: Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)
The blanket of roses draped upon the winning Derby horse is the quintesential “perishable crown.” Those flowers wilt and fade, but work for the Master in the Kingdom of our LORD will produce eternal fruit. So [Jesus] said to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life.’ (Luke 18:29-30)
This May, let’s take time to honestly assess whether we are running for perishable roses, or following the admonition of Jesus to lay up “… treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” (Matthew 6:20)