If you read my blog, you know how I feel about working out. In prior blogs, I made mention of Insanity Workout and how proud and accomplished I felt doing it. Not long after that blog post...I gave up. Shameful I know, but in my heart I felt like I just couldn't do it. It just started to feel out of reach and so I quit.
Then, a few weeks later a friend asked me to run the Cherry Blossom 10 miler with her. And fool that I am, I said: OK. I started off slow, run 3 minutes/walk 2 minutes, then run 4 min/walk 2 min. And then run 4 min/walk 1min. After that, it got to a point where I was supposed to run without stopping for 3 miles. How do you go from 4 minute spurts to running for 30 - 36 minutes straight?! Man! Whoever came up with this running plan is a nut job. I cursed their black hearts and developed my own plan. For the race, I need to run less than 14 minutes per mile or a truck comes and takes you away. So, I figured I'd do a mixture of running and walking that would be just enough to avoid public shame. As such, I never got to the point where I was running without stopping. Then I had this conversation at work:
Co-worker friend: I've found that I can run longer/further if I never stop running. Once you stop, or you start walking...you just lose momentum and psychologically you're done for.
Me: Hmmm. Yeah. So how far can you run without stopping?
Co-worker friend: Like 1.8 miles.
I wasn't even running 1 mile (I sucked)! Needless to say, I was...bothered. Convicted if you will. And so I went home, and I ran. And when my legs started to hurt I told myself "No! You can do this. Your legs don't hurt. You can't even feel your legs. You are a machine!" That was dumb. OF COURSE I could feel my legs! They were super tired! And I'm not a machine...I'm a girl! However, I pressed on. And when I checked my time, I'd been running for 25 minutes. I figured I could go further. I looked down, I'd been running 35 minutes. I was at my goal: 3 whole miles! But I kept running, for nearly 4 miles. And I was shocked. I didn't think I could do it, and as a result I couldn't do it.
I think it might be the same way with the life we give to God. Spiritually, I am often a stop and start runner. I run spiritually in much the same way as I was running physically: just fast enough to not be picked up by the truck. And if the truck does reach me, I'm just like "grace." Which is cool if I'm just really done in, tired, stumbling, after giving it my all. But if I'm running in spurts just to come in under 14 minutes...I'm not running correctly. The good book says:
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. 1 Corinthians 9:24-25
I have to run to WIN. I'm not going to win the Cherry Blossom 10 miler. But I should train to do so. Same thing with the life I offer as a sacrifice (Romans 12:1) to God. My aim should be perfection instead of just "good enough." I have to "press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us." (Philippians 3:14).
In other words, I have to run without stopping.
Man! Whoever came up with this running plan is...God.
:)
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