Warning: This blog contains somewhat mildly kind of graphic images.
So you know how I signed up for a half marathon?
Well, if you didn’t know, I signed up to run a half marathon at Ankgor Wat … in Cambodia.
Crazy, I know.
Signing up was very simple and seeing the green check-mark pop up after completing the form seemed too small to signify what the next weeks would look like.
I didn’t realize what would ensue after saying yes to the end result of the half marathon. I ran with some friends on a dusty Tuesday afternoon through Battambang and the two days later woke up sick. During the sickness I also gained an interesting full body rash. I couldn’t train for about a week while I recovered.
I remember it was about two days after I had managed a short run and I was biking home from ministry at the hospital when I ran into the back of a Khmer girls bike and lost control of mine. My teammate Sarah, a witness to the fiasco, informed me later how I flipped over my handle bars landed on my knee as the bike crashed on top of me.
I felt a sting on my knee as well as my pride as I picked myself up and tried to tell the worried Khmer girl that it was my fault and that I was okay.*
After turning my handle bars back to the front, I biked the rest of the way home before looking at my knee. As I sat on the steps in the house I rolled my pant leg back to reveal a gash in my knee that was most definitely not the scrape I thought. Inwardly I groaned as I realized I probably would not be running for the next couple of days.
Because I did not treat my leg I also gained an infection to the area as well as several other bug bites. The picture above is one taken after they began to heal.
This past Sunday, after my infected areas began to heal, I was fixing my lunch of reheated dumplings and as I began to pour the spurting oil out of the pan I managed to pour it out all over my left hand.
The damage is as pictured below…
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I had to take some time to sit with the Lord and process all these injuries and the pain of training. I didn’t really understand and wondered how after signing up for the race my conditions got worse and more complicated. In many ways this parallels signing up for the World Race. I knew I wanted to walk in obedience and I wanted the joy of following Jesus but didn’t truly realize what the cost would look like. I knew there would be one yet didn’t know what form it would come in. The race has been hard. As I talked with the Lord about my injuries and training He spoke to my heart,
“Whenever you start to run there will be complications.”
I knew He was speaking to our spiritual race as well as this one. We should not view complications or hindrances as a ‘sign’ to quit but they should be viewed in the light of the reality of the spiritual battle we are already engaged in whether we realize it or not. But that should not discourage you to stop running for we know that not only does God work ALL things out for His children’s good but He also has given us the victory in Christ Jesus.
Your struggle is creating in you a better image of Christ. Keep running.
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who [i] have been called according to his purpose.” Romans 8:28
“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 15:56-57
“Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.” James 1:2-4
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2
*the broken translation of what I said: ” good, good, it’s okay, it’s okay, thank you, thank you.”
