Run Well, Good is Coming

Well...yep this is me...post a 4km run in the mid-afternoon heat. Red faced, majorly sweaty, frown lines made worse because I think I frown the whole time I am running.  I am NOT a runner by nature. I have mentioned that in the past. I would get a "stomach ache" 3 weeks out from the school cross country just so I wouldn't have to take part because I just knew that I would come last...and seriously who likes to come last. Some people glide down the road...I do not glide....think Clydesdale horse crossed with a elephant. I plod. Slowly. Not slowing down and definitely NOT speeding up. I plod the distance and I do not enjoy it. I constantly ask myself "why?" and I know very well why. I do this because its good for me and there are parts of myself I don't appreciate as much as other parts. And in order for me to appreciate them more...they need to shrink. I can't be friends with them so they need to go. So a long with running three times a week I continually put myself, my body through the ringer...in order for me to feel healthy, confident, strong and less stressed.

Today as I was rounding the corner to a L-O-N-G stretch of road that came with a head on wind, cars were rushing by and the heat...Oh my goodness the heat....I seriously thought of giving up, just stopping and walking the rest of the way. No one would need to know ah?  Walking would be a nice treat. And so the internal battle raged within me..."just walk...no keep going....no just walk your legs are so sore and you can't breathe....no keep going, you can do this,  you have done it before.....no just walk already you have done enough exercise this week....no keep going...SERIOUSLY KEEP GOING! "  And that is about when I get really stroppy with myself......Damn it girl if you can birth 6 out of 7 of your children naturally, including a not quite 10lb upside baby boy at home with no drugs you can run the last damn 1km!...Don't you dare stop!"  And then I stop arguing with myself and shut up and just keep going.   The last stretch is ALWAYS the hardest. ALWAYS.

My point here after I have pulled out the whole "if you can give birth" thing on myself....I start thinking about how running for me is like labour and birth. The reward at the end is AMAZING. The adrenaline rush is something else and the feeling like you have and can conquered the world. You feel strong, determine and powerful. But to get to that feeling...you have to work hard, real hard...there is pain and discomfort and you are tired...you have to get your head right and just get on with it. Side note in no way am I suggesting that being in labour or giving birth is like a mere wee 4km run....labour and birth is WAAAAY harder. All I am saying is there are some parallels.

Just as there are some parallels in our journeys and walk with Christ.  I am sure there are many of you out there reading this that are struggling, some even with a capital 'S'. I get it....please know I get it. I have not only been there...I am there. We all have our own personal struggles that most people wouldn't even have the faintest of clue of. You my friend are not alone. We are all struggling alongside one another...struggling with something. No one is immune. In my journey what I have noticed is that the toughest part, the steepest part, the part where you are most out of breath, the most tired, the most sore is near the end. Its where you want to give up, its where you just want to sleep and for the pain to stop....ITS TOUGH GOING. You think you are never going to make it, the part where you think its just not working and that its beaten you. But my friend hear me now....lean in and get this...YOU ARE NEARLY THERE. You can do it, you will do it and you have to do it. You can do this. Draw into yourself, draw into God, draw into His Word and His Strength, draw into those you can trust to be supportive yet truthful, encouraging yet not worried yet will ply you with chocolate or coffee along the way (You need those types of people in your life...find some).   My friend keep running your race well...run it strong, run it determined not to let it beat you, run it knowing that there is good, no... great things at the end. Don't give up...just don't.  This will not beat you, overcome you or crush you. This will be gloriously amazing but even more it will be ultimately for His glory.

You will be better for it. I promise.

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day " - 2 Timothy 4:7-8

"The pain that you have been feeling can't compare to the Joy that is coming" - Romans 8:18