Running

This month I ran my first race. It was an 8k through downtown Richmond on the same day as the Richmond marathon and half marathon. It was a hot day for November and steamy due to overnight thunderstorms, even at 7 am.

I started running for first time in July. I would not have started running if it weren't for the women in my Bible study. We started running together twice a week, very slow at first with a lot of walking in between the running. As long as they were still running, I would try to keep running. With them by my side it was so much easier to overcome the mental battle in my head and not stop.

It was great running with these women twice a week for months, but on the day of the 8k, it was just me. No one else was there with me. Everyone was running their own race. We had met the night before to eat together and encourage each other, but most of the encouragement I got during the race was from people standing on the side of the road who didn't know me at all. With the finish in mind, I kept moving forward. Finishing the 8k was a great feeling, but there is another race that I am running with eternal significance.

Too often I start to walk in the race I am running for the sake of the gospel. Too often I want to be comfortable and not experience pain. In this race, it is not my own strength that will keep me running (believe me, I have tried). It is only by the strength of my savior that I can keep running. I am running this race by the grace of God and for His glory, and too often I don't strive to finish and win the prize. I say no to the difficult things God is asking me to do, and stop running the race in so many other ways. There is so much richness in the race metaphor!

And so my prayer is that I would run the race with perseverance, not growing weary or losing heart, with my eyes fixed on Jesus as described in Hebrews 12:1-3. I'm glad that running a race has brought me to consider the race metaphors in scripture prayerfully and understand it on a more personal level.

"Thus through him I may lay hold upon him in whom I am also laid hold upon; ... stretching forth not to what shall be and shall pass away but to those things that are before me. Not distractedly now, but intently, I follow on for the prize of my heavenly calling, ..." - Augustine, Confessions (emphasis mine)

Hebrews 12:1-3

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.