After I graduated highschool I swore to myself I would never run again… Then I joined World Race. With a goal for a 30 min 5k, I have been forced to hit the track again. It’s not coming easy. I am not a fan of pain + drudgery.
The process of forcing myself to run has become it’s own lesson in discipline. I didn’t realize how lazy and self-indulgent I can be until I found myself slowing down at the slightest bit of pain or fatigue while running.
While running, there’s always a wall I hit where the pain in my side gets worse and it gets hard to lift my legs. It’s the point when the crazy techno music and the special breathing doesn’t help anymore and you just have to decide whether or not you’ll keep going. For months, I would just give up and stop whenever I got to that point.
Lately, I have been pushing myself harder. It’s crazy how much faith it takes to do that sometimes. It’s not like I am afraid to keep running, but sometimes I wonder if it’s worth it. Why put myself through something that bores me and is uncomfortable? At that point, I have to rehearse in my mind all the reasons I feel that God has called me on this trip and I have to just keep running.
I have seen this new need for discipline and reliance on God’s promises and His grace pour over into other aspects of my life as well. The more I push myself as a runner, the more I learn how to do good things that I don’t want to do.
It has become clear to me that discipline does not come merely from a desire to be disciplined, it does not feed it’s own motivation. Rather, discipline comes from believing in and devoting your life to a higher purpose. When you have your eyes set on an end goal and your heart fixed on a prize, then you will have the strength to fix your will and do what you must.
In highschool, I took track for a semester. To be honest, I wasn’t too excited about it. I spent most of the time feeling slow and insecure and wanting to lie down in the cool grass and drink lots and lots of water. My coach would urge us to keep running. I would get annoyed, but (being the people pleaser I am) I’d keep going. At the end of most track sessions, coach would sit us all down and talk to us. His favorite thing to talk about was 1 Corinthians 9:24-27:
“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preched to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”
Today and everyday I am learning to bend my flesh and my laziness to the will of God. I am learning to wake up in the morning and I run and work and do whatever I do as unto the Lord. My motivation? The imperishable crown of life.
