…”And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” Hebrews 12:1
The race of life. It’s a long run. Pacing ourselves is required and we need the right shoes. Last year I was training for a half-marathon. My training needed to be consistent and correct. When running you can only add a little distance at a time. Too much distance too quick and you set yourself up for injury. My longest run was 9.5 miles. It was great. I had worked for months to be able to run that distance.
Now, transition to our spiritual race. I am running this race the best I can. Although lately, I think I have taken a fall from a pulled muscle or something. I am struggling in so many ways. It’s funny when tragedy strikes, or circumstances get tough we learn what we are really capable of doing. Our spiritual training really shines through. It’s like the eagle flying harder and faster and farther in a storm than any other time, or you get completely knocked off your feet. I think I am somewhere in between.
Since Jason and I have followed God’s calling to Tennessee I have never felt like giving up so many times. At least once every few days, I long to pack up our home and head back to Colorado. Isn’t our heart deceitful to us? “The heart is deceitful above all things” Jer. 17:9 The only thing that has kept me here is my obedience to my Lord and Savior. We cannot and must not make decisions based on our feelings and emotion. Especially when it comes to accomplishing what God has asked us to do. We have had an incredibly rough 6 months since moving here to Tennessee. One thing after another has happened, we have certainly been inconvenienced. Who wouldn’t want to run home to what seems safe and familiar? Suffering stinks. But it is this type of training that is key to our race. Pain must come before reaching the finish line. I am sure you can ask any elite athlete if the road was easy for them to be a winning success, I am certain their answers would astonish us. The hours of training they put in for a 2 minute race would blow us away. Pain is required. When I was training last year I wanted to give up a lot. Its hard and it hurts. However, in order to reach the goal, you have to hang on and push through. Every time I ran a long run I had scripture committed to memory that I would quote as I ran to ease my mind. As the run got harder, the louder I would say those scriptures. I’m sure I gave people some great laughs as I shouted “I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength!!” Phil. 4:13. But it didn’t matter to me, I was pushing through the pain and running the race set before me.
We all love a good inspiring story of the underdog athlete who wins it all. Some of my favorite movies are about the underdog overcoming incredible obstacles. Well, I feel confident that I am the underdog. I mess up daily and fail constantly. Yet, it is the very love of my savior that sustains me. The cross and His resurrection breathe life into my very soul. My final win comes in death and meeting Jesus face to face. Meaning, I won’t see this side of eternity my entire race. I have no doubt though that Jesus Christ himself will be meeting me at my finish line and I long to hear those words, “Well done, my good and faithful servant.”
So for now, I am running this race. My race. No one can run it for me. It is made just for me. As my husband spoke to 250 students in our youth group this morning, he showed a video of a 600m race of Heather Dorniden, a young Christian woman who had trained her whole life to be at this very pivotal race. In the middle of the race she fell…hard. Amazingly, she got back on her feet and began running again, only to win the race! What?!! Every time I watch the video I get tears in my eyes. I am so inspired because I feel weak. I feel like have fallen out of pure exhaustion. Yet, today, the Lord reminded to get back up and keep running. He is my coach and biggest fan!
I have had this ongoing goal in my life to be a runner. I have had a few set backs since last year and had recently just given up on the idea of becoming a runner. Today, I believe God is asking me to not give up on that dream. I believe he wants to teach me about running the race of life by me running physically and training . I am going to put one foot in front of the other. That’s all I can do right now. I don’t have a goal for a certain race or anything, but I am running to see what God wants to teach me and to be obedient to His calling. So I get back up and start my race again…hopefully to win the ultimate race.
