One of my favorite things to do is run.
I know—gag, right? Go juice cleanse or something. Hear me out, though! It’s my way of de-stressing and having the space to think…or not think. Nothing beats getting away from all those annoying, bickering thoughts in my head and just focusing on my feet.
Left, right, left, right
These past couple years, I’ve really started enjoying this form of therapy…or torture(whichever way relates to you more). My friends and I decided we were going to do a half marathon. So, we reluctantly started training. Birmingham has an amazing running community that provides means to go on those longer runs. I’m not talking about like 5 miles. These people do like 20+ mile runs every other weekend. I’m sweating just thinking about it.
On one longer run, we were talking with a man who had been doing this for forever. He was giving us advice and encouragement about our journey ahead. He said that training was necessary for long races—that endurance had a lot to do with your mind and attitude.
“Are you going to keep running when your legs are tired?”
A quiet, nonchalant question at the time, but I couldn’t help but feel the gravity of its importance.
The Bible has many verses on running/walking. Life is a race on a path that God has laid out for us. We all have our own marathons in life—ones that God says will not be a walk in the park. Pun intended. People have all different races. Some will be longer, shorter, with some uphill, ALL uphill, with detours, or flat and beautiful. Still when mile 18 comes along, no matter how breezy the path, continuing with a smile will be hard. Our bodies betray us and we end up with thoughts that could be debilitating. We’ve trained for this. We’ve been victorious on training runs yet something is questioning our abilities. So, when our thoughts and our bodies are doubting us, will we keep running?
In our lives, we are victorious. Jesus made sure of that with the cross. He equips us with what we need and calls us to His higher purpose. Seems like a pretty sweet set-up, right? Yeah, that sounds biblical and great but sometimes we just feel like giving up. Can we hitch a ride on a golf cart for part of it or something? We don’t realize that when life gets a little uphill, He’s strengthening us. Jesus is our pacer, running right alongside us. Those things that were dragging us behind can’t follow us at the pace that Jesus is so graciously and amazingly allowing and inviting us to run at. He knows we can do it. He’s deepening our reliance on Him and encouraging us every step of the way(wow so many puns). Let’s throw off things that hinder us and run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfector of our faith. The verse goes to say that Jesus endured the cross because of the great joy ahead. That’s us. We have joy because of Jesus and that’s something that won’t ever go away unless you let it.
I know the past few months for me were hectic with all the planning for my time on and after the World Race but I’ve still got a lot of road ahead of me, a lot of strength in me, and a lot of Jesus’ grace and mercy available to me. I’m determined to turn my worry into praise and my fear into hope. I’m really just thankful that God is giving me the honor of doing a lap around the world as His ambassador this upcoming year. Launch day (August 4/5th) is getting closer and I’m asking God to prepare my heart and mind for this great responsibility ahead. I’m also hoping you ask God to give you strength for whatever part of the race that you’re on right now—it’s freely yours whenever you need it. Our real, un-filtered lives may be a little bit bumpy but they say best journeys are a little off the beaten path?
So, let’s consider our trials pure joy–that storms and hills are meant to purify, de-baggage, and strengthen us, because our foundation is in Christ and we’ve got nowhere to go but up. Pun, again, intended.
2 Samuel 22:33
It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he causes me to stand on the heights.
