When your brain is running faster than your feet….

Russ and I will be heading over to Champaign after work on Friday to run the 5K for WBGL’s Hope for Justice team.

Which meant tonight was our last night to run before the race.

Apparently a 5K is like…over 3 miles…a distance which I have not yet actually run.

I HAVE increased from running from our driveway to the neighbors; and have been able to go a little over two miles now, so progress…

Tonight I decided it was time to see if I could manage to do three.

No hurry, right? Since, did I mention the race is Friday??

I get a stitch in my side walking fast,so this running thing has been a challenge that I have been able to pull off by listening to podcasts of teachings to pass the time.

However tonight; the night of the big final practice run, God in all His mercy sent sprinkles and thick gray skies that threatened a downpour so…no way could I run with my iPhone in hand.

It was just me propelled by this blonde brain as I made my way around the course.

As I ran I thought and prayed and pondered, with only mild panic that I might go insane before I ever made it back home.

I realized rather quickly that it was no good to think about how far I had come or how far I had yet to go.

I just had to run focusing on one step at a time.

The only way to finish was to keep picking up and putting down one foot after the other.

I realized that this is how we finish races…not by calculating the distance and breaking it up into portions that we can manage, not in chunks of distance that we tick off as we complete them…

but simply step by step…steadfastly one foot after the other…whether walking it out or running it out…that is how the race is finished.

It’s tedious and hard…but we can take the next step..and the next one…and the next one.

I think I must have finally got it right tonight because as I began to focus on just putting one foot after the other and breathing in…breathing out…I found a rhythm and then I noticed the sign on the little church I pass…

Be still and know…that I am God.

Good words to walk or run to…may God bless you as you finish well the race set before you.

You can do it.

 

One faithful step at a time <3