the race where I led in a district event for almost 2 miles of a 3.1-mile race.  I was running well with no one in front of me. It was late Fall and the snow started to come down but nothing could stop me from winning my first race in the history of my cross-country career.  At about mile 2, one runner flew past me.......then another, and another, and another, and yet another, until I was far from first when I crossed the finish line.  Don't worry. Good counseling heals even that kind of wound.  My race was hindered by the fact that even though I was running a fast race, I was not running like a person who needed to go over 3.1 miles. 

I'm sure that most of us can recount this kind of story from experience.  Maybe it's not sports for you. But life is filled with great starts and limping finishes.  We also experience this in the Christian race that God has set before us.  You start so well, come forward at a church event, check a card and pray a prayer.  You feel alive, new and bold.  But discouragement begins to come.  A leader in the church disappoints you, a TV preacher has a moral failure, the prayer you prayed over and over again is not answered in the way you thought God would answer it, a teenage child decides to walk away from his Christian upbringing, a spouse breaks trust, a job is lost, and all put together, the Christian life is not what it was and what you imagined it to be. 

The Apostle Paul's letter to the Galatians deals with many interferences to running well for Christ.  It was written to the churches that had experienced tremendous growth through the conversion of Gentiles (non-Jews) who were now turning from the worship of false Greco/Roman gods to the worship of the one true God, Jesus Christ.  When Jews came to follow Christ though, recognizing him as the Messiah, the one promised in the Old Testament, they would follow Christ but continue to uphold the Jewish laws.  This was to be expected as they could not imagine suddenly not following the law given to Moses.  A struggle emerged because the Gentiles who came to Christ did not know, nor did they follow Jewish law.  The church that started so well was now experiencing a major barrier to running the race.  Some of the Jewish followers of Christ, these "judaizers," were imposing Jewish law on the Gentile converts.  The three major concerns in these churches for the judaizers were: 1. Circumcision (the physical surgery),  2. Observing of Jewish festivals (A question over corporate worship), and 3. Following the dietary laws (all the do's and don'ts of being a true follower).

Paul is not a happy camper about what's going on.  The core issue is circumcision, a physical operation for adults, without modern pain killers, on a sensitive part of the human anatomy. In fact, he is so upset that in Galatians 5: 12 , he wishes that the agitators - those teaching circumcision - would go the entire way and emasculate themselves.  That is some seriously strong language! Paul is furious because of the serious nature of what these few are teaching.