Let’s Run, Not Walk The Race

I’m a runner. Not a very fast one or talented by any stretch of the imagination, but I love to run. Three marathons, eight half marathons and a smattering of 5ks over the last 20 years interspersed between 12 pregnancies, four adoptions, thousands of sports practices and millions of loads of laundry.

Some days my only time slot for a run was 10:30-11:30pm. And I took it.

This past weekend’s half marathon with my oldest four daughters was a tradition we began when Daly Kay was 16. You have to be 14 to enter the race so since our inaugural Disney Princess Half Marathon I’ve run it every year with any child old enough.

This year’s race was especially challenging since my lungs have been giving me quite a rough go over the last six months. I decided that in order to finish, I’d best walk the course rather than run and risk an asthma attack.

And I learned something.

It’s far more difficult to walk a long race than it is to run it.

And the symbolism was not lost on this ol’ girl.

You see, the Apostle Paul tells us in… That we should run the race in such a way as to win the prize. And I get that Paul is talking about an eternal prize and the race of life. But what I realized this week was that walking is far more difficult, far more painful than running.

I was out there on the course longer. The sun came out and it got hot. I was tired longer. Hungry. Sore in places that usually don’t have a chance to get sore because I’m not out there for so long. I wasn’t running because I was scared of what might happen (asthma attack). So many parallels to what Paul was talking about became real on that racecourse.

So let me encourage you today in your “run” with Jesus. Don’t get distracted or slowed down with fear. Don’t think that if you take it easy it will be easier. Get on with the race He has set before you and run without distraction or discouragement.

His prize at the finish line will be better than you can ask, hope, think or imagine and our lives will have been better all along the way because we ran hard and fast after the things He had marked out for us to do. (Ephesians 2:10).