3 years ago a recruiter from World Vision came to my church and challenged people to run the Twin Cities marathon to raise money for clean water in Africa. I had never run more than 3 miles in my life, but I enjoy running and I like a good challenge. So why not? Training for a marathon was the most challenging thing I put my body through physically, emotionally, and spiritually. I followed a very strict training plan, broke my 10 year vegetarian diet for training purposes, and had to be hyper aware of eating enough calories to ensure my body had enough nutrition to run the long distances I was running. When I was marathon training my life consisted of working, running, sleeping, repeat. Some of the highlights of training were watching myself push through when absolutely nothing in me thought I could run any further and being in the best physical shape I had ever been in my life. Some of the frustrating things about marathon training is at times I wanted to eat whatever I wanted and not care and about halfway into my marathon training I was getting sick of running. There were days when I ran long distances on boring treadmills because of the heat and there were days I ran in the pouring rain. Marathon training was an insane season of my life and I would not trade it for the world. I crossed the finish line with my best friend Libby next to me and felt a supreme sense of accomplishment that day. It took me about 15 minutes after crossing the finish line to catch my breath and about 3 days for my sore knees to recover, but I ran a marathon and lived to tell the tale.
Today marks the halfway point of my World Race journey. To be honest, it’s a little overwhelming to imagine I still have 5 months left of living overseas. These past 6 months have been some of the most joy filled moments of my life. I’ve gotten the privilege to meet beautiful people from all over the world, had multiple squadmates speak lots of life over me, been under an incredible leadership team that has been super intentional with me, gone on some amazing adventures on our off days, and have overall seen God do some amazing things in my life and in others around me. I’m incredibly happy to be on this World Race journey, but I’m also entering a season where the honeymoon phase of my journey has faded and I have to actively choose joy each day. I’m fighting to remain present and fully engaged in where God has me right now because I know that this year is going by fast and before I know it I will be back in Wisconsin bundled in 100 layers happy to be home, yet missing my squad that has become a family to me.
I am choosing to run this World Race as a marathon and not a sprint. Sprinting is for short distances, and while this may work for a week long Missions trip I’m choosing to run at a comfortable marathon pace for the long haul. I am choosing to fight for joy in the midst of culture shock, heat that this Northern body is not accustomed to, an endless amount of cockroaches, and missing loved ones back home. I am choosing to run to the Lord as my refuge, strength, and ever-present help in time of need. I am choosing to say yes to being intentional with my amazing team who has loved me so incredibly well as I’ve been processing all the things. My hope and prayer is that I have no regrets at the end of this Race. I pray I give it my all, pressing in to what God has for me on the World Race and pressing into the incredible community around me. I am not emotionally prepared to picture myself at final debrief in South Africa yet, but imagine it will be just as victorious and joy filled as crossing the marathon finish line.
That one time I was crazy enough to run a marathon!
