With Every Moment Left, With Every Borrowed Breath, Let This Be True, That All My Heart, For All My Life, Belongs to You
the things I took on in life differently. I started believing I was created to shape a world in the image of the God I love, and therefore my life should be lived in a way that reflects His idea of a good world and not my idea of a good life. When I started this running journey, even though I was running to honor a young woman in our community, it soon became all about me. I loved the attention I got for tackling my longest and fastest runs ever. I loved the feeling of accomplishment I felt when I did. I got high on success, a high I hadn't felt since high school. Then one day I asked myself what I was running for. Was I trying to get healthy, lose a few pounds, become a world champion marathoner? The answer was, I had no idea. I was sinking a lot of time and heart and energy into running, yet I had no idea what I ultimately wanted to get out of it. I knew the outcome was I felt good, but had no idea what purpose the good feelings served. When we continue doing something in life for the sole purpose of feeling good, that's a self-centered activity. I'm not suggesting that feeling good is a bad thing, but I've lived long enough to know that a life of feeling good can, without much warning, become more desirable than living a life of doing good. That's when I started opening my ears to God. I started asking him what he wanted me to do with this running journey, and tried to follow his whispers. I began to see my life as God's investment in the world. My life is borrowed from him for a purpose, and that purpose wasn't going to reveal itself in my pleasure, but in his word. For my first marathon, I carried this scripture on my back: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. That has become my running mantra. It's become my life mantra. With every breath God has given me, with every moment I have left, I want to fight with everything I have for the good in this life, I want to help people finish whatever races they are up against, and through it all, I want to keep leaning on my faith. I want to lean on God's purpose, and not my own pleasures and desires. That's why, when I run this Georgia Jewel a week from tomorrow, I'll be running for a particular cause. You can read more about it below. But God has spent the last year leading me to this race so God can help Giving Words and Kate Fletcher. It's been a long and challenging journey to get here, it will be even more challenging next Saturday, but I have no doubt I've arrived here following more of God's whispers than I have chasing my own pleasures. Here's the cool thing, though. As fulfilling as it was getting caught up in the attention, as high as I felt on success, it doesn't compare to the joy I've found using this running journey to honor God's purpose for my life. There is unparalleled joy that comes with giving all my heart and all my life and yes, all my miles, to Him.
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