Have a Good Run!

Running and life have been a common theme for me over the last month...perhaps because my daughter has been participating in triathalon events, and tomorrow will run her first 1/2 marathon. Other friends, friends in my "advanced" age bracket, have been training and competing as well. Again, and again, I have been inspired by messages with this theme, and by those all around me, who run their race with focus, and with endurance. Today, I am reading and running, but writing only a little. I just ran across a passage in a text I am studying, and hope that it will inspire you as it has me.

"Like the marathon...every life race has periods of extreme discomfort interspersed with excitement and joyful enthusiasm. At times, we all encounter hindrances that impede our progress. Some of these are beyond our control, but many are obstacles we create for ourselves.

In the race of life, for example, we get sidelined when we allow our bodies to get out of shape, our relationships to cool, or our spirituality to be neglected. Sometimes we're distracted from running strong because we look at the crowds, hoping to get applause or wanting to prove something to our critics. Worse is the tendency to keep our eyes on the competition, habitually monitoring the progress of others until we lose our own direction. "Making comparisons is the cardinal sin of modern life," according to business guru Jim Collins. "It traps us in a game [or race] we can't win. Once we define ourselves in terms of others, we lose the freedom to shape our own life."

Gary R. Collins "Christian Coaching"

"Strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race that God set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith." Hebrews 12: 1-2

For today, I will keep my focus on that which has been set before me: Love my family every day in tangible ways, write every day without being concerned if anyone reads my words, get on the treadmill and take another tenth of a mile, and set my face like a flint on the One who set the race before me. Tomorrow, I will get up and cheer my daughter on, even if in her focus, she only sees the finish.

Have a good run!