Yesterday
(October 17, 2010), a friend of mine, Daniel Durick and I, ran the Bucharest
City Marathon. Yeah, that’s 26.2 MILES…..
Crazy? Yes.
Worth it? WITHOUT DOUBT!!!
I woke up early, excited as a kid on Christmas and started praying, “God, today
I just want to be with You. You speak. Do what you want and I will simply BE.� What
I didn’t know is that God would show up in the way that He did. As the early
morning passed and I walked out the door, I noticed that we were adorned with
cool weather and a slight drizzle. PERFECT! We called a taxi and made our way
toward Parliament. When we arrived, Daniel and I navigated our way to the
marathon area, did a bit of stretching and then headed straight to the starting
line.
It was at
9:42am when the gun went off. We quickly hit play on our iPods and started out
on our 42km journey. My first song was ‘So Help Me God’ by The Showdown. How
fitting right!? That song takes me in to the throne room if you know what I
mean, and no, I’m not talking about the bathroom. The feeling at this point
was… unique?? Let’s just put it this way, it was a mixture of pure excitement
and ‘this is gonna make for a long day!’
Our first
lap (about 6.55 miles) was great! We were in a decent pack for most of it and
once we hit the end of lap one, Daniel and I saw our friends cheering us on
with claps, cameras and signs. This was a high point for both of us! I didn’t
expect to see them at that time so it was that much more exciting! Unfortunately,
that feeling wore off quickly as we found ourselves back on the street with very
few people cheering us on. Nonetheless, Daniel and I decided to cheer on the
people that we were surrounded by, whether they were looking good or in severe
pain. When they heard us yelling and clapping for them, knowing that we were
going through the same exact things, they lit up and we could see hope in their
eyes. This was just as much a boost for Daniel and I as it was them! This was a
new and very different kind of high for both of us! I often forget how much encouragement
is received when I simply give it! It’s the reward of seeing them pep up that
got me going again… kind of like discipleship.
During the
second half of lap two, I met Constantin, a 72 year old Romanian man that spoke
no English. He had determination and heart written all over him. As I spoke
what little Romanian I knew, I told him that we were running for ‘Doamne Isus’
(Lord Jesus). He perked up when I told him that! Constantin was a refreshing
breath to me during lap two. It was difficult to part with him as he was
running only the half marathon but we encouraged him to sprint ahead at the end
(that was GREAT!) and yelled for him at the top of our lungs as he crossed the
finish line! My time with him will never be forgotten.
The end of
lap two was different…. There was no one to be found! Our friends had just
missed us and I needed encouragement to the nth degree. All of our
half marathon friends were gone and the marathon runners were scattered. Of
course, at this point (about 13+ miles), I was getting stiff and my muscles
needed to rest. I wouldn’t let them. I was going to finish and I was going to
finish strong. Through the grit and grunting, I began telling God, “God, please
send me some encouragement. Please! I’m hurting and I need it bad.� I met a man
(Marian) who was running with a friend (Ioana) to encourage her and see her to
the end. That was HUGE! Marian made sure that I knew he was there with me as
well as Daniel was. He wanted me to know that he was looking out for me and
that he had my back. Again, I say, that was HUGE!!! We ground our teeth, set
new goals for that lap and kept going. This was by far the most difficult lap,
lap 3.
I can
remember Daniel telling me, “If I go ahead, remember, I’m not leaving you. I
will come back for you. I’m in this with you and we will finish together.� Every now and then, Daniel would run ahead
and get people off the street to encourage and cheer me on. I couldn’t explain
to you how this made me feel. This is when a tear or two came down my face…. The
best feeling in the world at that point was approaching a corner hearing
nothing but the sound of two hands repetitively hitting together. Imagine that
for a second…. That was exactly how God answered the sound of my voice. It was
a friend, who no matter what, wasn’t going to leave me even though he could. It
was people that had no ties to me but decided to run beside me and route me on yelling,
“GOOOOOOO TEXAS!!!!!!� I’m pretty sure I cried thankful tears during those
times….
Whether it was
one or twenty people who knew nothing of my pain and what I was going through,
that didn’t matter. It was them telling me that they were proud of me, that
they wanted to see me finish, that they were running with me and clapping their
hands yelling “LET’S GO TEXAS!� that did it. That told me that I was important
to them and that they wanted to see me compete well and finish strong. It was
euphoric.
This
immediately took me to Jesus. You know, we often remember how God Jesus was but we seem to forget how
human he was at the same time. He endured pain. There were times that He wanted
to quit and there were times that He just needed someone by His side. This
Jesus, this is the Jesus that knows my pain, the Jesus that understands right
where I am, the Jesus that is clapping His hands as hard and loud as he can,
yelling at the top of His lungs, “LET’S GO COLBY!!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!! YOU CAN DO
IT!!!! I’M IN THIS WITH YOU!!!!! WE’RE GONNA FINISH TOGETHER!!!!! I’M SO PROUD
OF YOU!!!!! I’M SO PROUD OF YOU!!!!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!�
Don’t EVER forget
that feeling when you first realized that the power inside you is that same voice!
