Imagine that you are the coach of a four-person championship track and field relay team.  How do you arrange your runners so that you are most competitive?  Does the fastest guy or girl go first, last, or in the middle? Well ask any track coach-high school, college or Olympic-and they will say let the second fastest runner go first, the slower ones in the middle, and put the fastest last.  We could call this strategy, ‘start strong, finish stronger,’ and it just so happens to be the strategy St. Paul encourages for church goers in today’s Epistle reading, and encourages for us to run our best race, live our best life, today.