Running with my own self-expectations.
Lungs gasping for air as a voice comes to ear.
Don’t stop running.
If Jesus is with you you’ll have all the endurance you need to get to the end.
Hamstrings screaming.
My pace dwindles until I come to a walk.
The voice told me not to walk.
But when I slowed down I heard the voice of God.
He told me He is with me in all my strengths and weaknesses.
I am going to lay it out there as plain and simple as possible. Training Camp is right around the corner. Like literally in 17 days all 4 July squads will be in Georgia as we come together to be trained up, peeled away, mentally and physically exhausted, brought into vision with what life on the field will be like. We will go through intense team building exercises, receive leadership speeches, eat and sleep similar to the soon to be home life, become vulnerable with one another, engage in praise and worship… Honestly I don’t really know what all will go down at training camp. I can tell you I am excited, nervous, excited, nervous… well you get the idea!
So here it is time is creeping up as I have hoped. The next chapter to this season with The World Race is about to be opened up. Get ready for the page to turn! There has been much preparation, and a little bit of lacking in some areas. God has spoken to me on multiple occasions. The beginning of this post is what He spoke to me today as I was taking a run, “I am with you in your strengths and your weaknesses”. This promise He has and will forever hold true! Let’s be clear I am nothing without God, and without God I am nothing. Honestly, there have been times my heart hasn’t been centered where it should be. When this has happened He has brought that appointed person to speak corrective and loving criticism into my life. Seeing the good, the bad, and the ugly. A blessing is exactly what it is. Then I gave myself a late start to physically preparing for the…well physical part of Training Camp. One of the requirements is to hike 2 miles in 40 minutes. No big deal right?!… okay 2 miles in 40 minutes WITH our packs! Give or take 30-45lbs. So about 3 weeks ago I begin more routinely to physically prepare… which includes lifting, running, hiking, stadiums, some stretching, and eating a bit cleaner. Minus the times my friends invite me for dinner and insist we have desert J (I will love them for this anyways!) So today I was running the nature walk trail, and literally these tiny dips were kickin my hamstrings tied ends to wherever they attach. Possibly due to a pretty intense hike the day before that didn’t include much stretching afterwards to my own asininity. I make it to one end of the trail and as I am heading back the voice I heard behind me said if God is with you He will give you the strength to endure this full run. The feeling of failing God came upon me, because literally the air was moist and my lungs were not inhaling and exhaling to a continuous rhythm. As my pace dwindled I came to a walk. My thoughts quieted, a sense of comfort and peace rushed over me as tears came to my eyes, and the Lord walking right beside me said, “I am with you in your strengths and weaknesses.” This shows right here that when, I am weak then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:10 – That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
His love is everlasting, and He does not give up on us in difficult times. He comes along side us. He picks us up! Which brings me to one of my most favorite verses.
Romans 8:31 – If God is for us, who can be against us?
As I move into this chapter with my eyes set on God and His calling for me I have faith He is cleaning my heart of any impurities. I have faith He is coming alongside me in this physical preparation, and make it His strength not my own.
(You’re a good good Father. It’s who You are, it’s who You are, it’s who You are. And I’m loved by You. It’s who I am. It’s who I am. It’s who I am…. You know just what we need before we even say a word – Good Good Father by Housefires)
I pray that in my blogs you will not be following me, but that you will be following Jesus. Please be praying for safe travels that are coming up, open hearts to take in the beauty of the body that God has brought together, for perseverance, and for the molding of all hearts involved. I love you! Jesus loves you!
Colossians 1:9-14 – For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives, so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
