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Jan 07, 2024 06:00am

Run With Endurance

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My feet pounded against the pavement, creating a beat in my headphones. I found myself starting to adjust my rhythm to match the flow of God’s promises playing in my ears. The 5K training app interrupted my music to give me encouragement. The lady’s voice told me to keep up the hard work and that I was almost done. The stranger’s encouragement somehow gave me just the jolt I needed to keep my legs moving to my music.

The lyrics reminded me that Jesus found me in the middle of my mess. I certainly was feeling like quite a mess. Sweat dripping from my brow was a small reflection of the bigger mess that I was on the inside. Bryan and Katie Torwalt’s amazing voices reminded me that, even when I can only see in part, I can still cling to His promises.

Each pound of pavement was like a tiny reminder from God of His promises that He will never leave me or forsake me and that He Who began a good work in me would be faithful to complete it.

Philippians 1:6 was the mantra I repeated to myself often as I recovered.

“I am convinced and confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will [continue to] perfect and complete it until the day of Christ Jesus [the time of His return].”

As my tracker ticked away the tenths of miles I was very slowly progressing, I thought about how I struggled to walk even with my walker right after I had major surgery, several months before this. I was reminded of how far God had brought me in less than a year, and I thanked Him for the work He was doing in me both physically and spiritually.

When the sweet stranger’s voice from my app congratulated me on a job well done, I saw I was just shy of 2 miles. I took the next few minutes to do extra laps in my driveway until I reached the 2 mile mark, and I thanked Jesus for the tiny victory. It was an unspoken goal I had set for myself-to reach 2 miles in my routine for a day, even though the app is technically supposed to help me achieve 3.14 miles, during the 30 minute guided session. But, I told myself this was a tiny victory, and reaching the completion of the 5K would be my next goal.

Although I was excited to have achieved my 2 mile secret goal, part of me was a little despondent for just a brief moment as I thought back to “the old days” when I worked up to my goal of a 9-minute mile that felt invigorating and just slipped right into my routine like it was nothing. God gave me a reminder that much had changed since then, and I smiled when I saw that my tracker said I had a 15 minute 34 second pace, knowing that was progress.

I am a continual work in progress, and I am so grateful I can track this one small area in a measurable way. God continues to do work on my heart and my body and my mind every day. There aren’t apps that track all of those, but God continues to open my eyes to the growth He is producing, and I am getting better at recognizing His sweet voice cheering me on. He reminds me to fight the good fight, to reorient my mind to focus on running the race He has given me, the mission He allows me, with endurance every day.

“Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us,” Hebrew 12:1