run the race + keep the faith

How does he have the energy to preach right now?

That kept popping up in my head during a 5k two 5ks ago. My friend had asked me to run with him the night before the race.

I don't know why I expected myself to be able to run the pace I kept when I ran three to four times a week when I run once or twice a month. But I did, and I said sure.

I also didn't hydrate properly before the race. And I didn't set an alarm, so I woke up about 15 minutes before the start and we rushed to the event. So, from about 50 yards on, I just kept thinking about how woefully unprepared I was and what a bad idea this 5k was.

But there's my friend, running beside me, saying that this race is just like the race set before us—there's the finish line up ahead, I know where it ends and how it ends; all I have to do is stay on the path.

I told myself that he's a sergeant. He's supposed to be motivating and be energetic and happy when the rest of us want to just quit. I wondered if God would hold it against me if I stopped to walk for a few yards. (I didn't.)

A couple of weeks ago, I ran another 5k. The same friend ran with me, along with another mutual friend who also happens to be a chaplain.

So I got a sermon in stereo.

Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Be cunning as snakes and innocent as doves. (We later realized that we were combining two different verses, but it worked as a good motivator.)

Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. -1 Peter 5:8 

Behold, I am sending you out like sheep in the midst of wolves; be wary and wise as serpents, and be innocent (harmless, guileless, and without falsity) as doves. [Gen. 3:1.]

I kept telling myself that the race had been won. That all I had to do was run and run well. I also wondered how they had the energy and breath to do anything other than suck wind for the last mile or so.

Last night, my friend and I ran about 2.5 miles at a local park (and I had even run 5 miles about a week earlier). He asked me if I thought snap judgments—good or bad—were a sin. I said yes, that we are not to judge, but it's also human nature for us to want to put people in boxes to be able to understand them (or think we understand them) quickly. This turned into a huge discussion about using "human nature" as an excuse for sin.

And I realized, as we kept the pace past mile one, and then past mile two, that even though I was talking, I wasn't out of breath. That maybe, if I'm focusing on God and communing with my fellow brother in Christ, I am given energy that wells up from some place deep inside so I can encourage others and bring glory to God.

It was a pretty amazing experience.

If I keep my focus on my small reserve of energy and run conservatively in the pursuit of comfort, I finish feeling exhausted. If I focus on the conversation at hand and the fellowship between my friend and I, I finish strong—we sprinted the last 30 yards or so.

It's a lot like marriage. If I focus on myself and give my husband only the energy and love I think I can afford to give away, I don't benefit either of us. But when I put my faith in God and focus on sustaining my husband, we are both filled and the love we can give is multiplied as it's received. Plus, marriage is definitely more like an ultra-marathon than a sprint.

Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us, 2 Looking away [from all that will distract] to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith [giving the first incentive for our belief] and is also its Finisher [bringing it to maturity and perfection]. He, for the joy [of obtaining the prize] that was set before Him, endured the cross, despising and ignoring the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God. [Ps. 110:1.] -Hebrews 12:1-2 (AMP)