Run and Not Be Weary.

I signed up for a 5k at the end of October. 

Color Me Rad 

(It's gunna be awesome because they are going to throw paint at us THE WHOLE TIME!!!)

       My goal is to run the whole way. A 5k is about 3.1 miles.  I have ran the mile without stopping maybe once in my whole life. I am not an athlete by any measure. So I have been "training" (more or less) for the past couple of weeks on my own.
       Let's just say it wasn't all flowers and daisies around here and I was struggling and feeling overwhelmed at how much I need to improve in order to get up to running the whole way.
I tried running with music, and a running/walking routine to build endurance, but I wasn't getting far and was becoming more and more frustrated with myself.
     I have this great pal who runs a minimum three miles on a bad day and is basically a workin out machine! She also signed up for the race and was wanting to run together.
      I tried to find any excuse not to, because frankly, it would be embarrassing for me to even attempt to try to keep up, but finally I gave in. I told her over and over again how out of shape I was and that I would probably only be good for a mile....MAYBE. She laughed and joked that it wouldn't be a big deal, that I could do it and maybe we would even go two miles.  I laughed in her face.  She would soon learn that I really was a weakling and we would not be going any further then a mile. And I fully anticipated being out of breath by the end and sore as all get out the next day.

So we start running. And before I know it we are at half a mile...and I wasn't tired.  Then we make it a mile...and I am still going.  Then we are back at her house just like that. I was not even out of breath people!!! My legs didn't even hurt yet! OH and I had forgotten my tennis shoes, so I had to run in my knock off Toms. Soreness or aching were not present. We both could not get over how much easier it was running with a friend. I have never run that distance with out stopping in my whole life, and suddenly I had just done it like it was nothing at all!!!

        I was thinking about this as I was running by myself the other day and I was struggling a little.  It really is better to "share the burden" with a friend. I fought so long and hard to just do it on my own, but when it came down to it, this friend was the very thing I need to encourage me and push me into to seeing that running three miles was not out of my own realm of possibility, that I could do it and be okay!

         It seems this 'trying it out on my own' thing is a constant theme in my life.  I often find life as a whole to be so overwhelming and frustrating, I often want to do this:

        I often wonder how people do it? How they cope? How do people go through hard things and come out of it better and more resilient than before?  I sometimes just feel all alone and isolated in my own struggles, and frankly, I wonder if  I can do it all by myself, when the burdens and expectations and problems seem totally impossible for a weak minded girl such as myself. 

The answers to my questions is rather simple.  When I feel hopeless, weak or inadequate in doing the things I deem difficult or impossible, there is a friend who knows what that feels like. This friend has run the race, AND WON IT!  He tells you and me

"my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:30.) He begs us,  "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matt 11:28.)

            When the race seems long and you feel you cannot go a mile further, our Friend Jesus Christ will run with you and give you the strength needed to finish.    You can try to utilize the tools of the world to cope and carry on, liek I did with my ipod and running programs, but you will eventually find that these tools fall short.  Christ, our friend, is the best resource we have to run the race.

            Sometimes we may say to him "I can only go a mile," but He, like my dear friend,  can show us that through Him we have a greatly untapped potential to go farther, to do more, to BE MORE than we could have ever wished on our own. 

          Still, I foolishly stumble around on my own like a stubborn independent child, trying to do it only own. I am weighed down and complain of my own hardships a long the way, when all along there is someone there to run with me and to lift the burdens from my shoulders and show me my own abilities. Christ knows it all. He has literally, been there, done that, and got the T-shirt. He is the most intelligent being in the universe.  He created worlds, and under the direction of Heaven Father, created me. He knows me. He loves me,  and He waits for me to be humble enough to ask for His help.  

        I have been reminded by my running experience that when I turn to Christ, and pray for His enabling power to dwell with me, I find that the race of life, though long and difficult, is not impossible for me. If I strive to always keep Him as my running buddy,  I know I can run and not be weary. With Jesus Christ, I can finish the race.

That is all.