While my legs were churning through the nine mile run, I started to review my current marathon goal. My first marathon was completed in 5h 8m, my second 4h 6m, and my last one was 4h 1m. I've worked hard to prepare to go beyond breaking 4h and hitting 3h 45m. However, most of my training runs have shown the possibility, even probability of breaking that goal. I wondered to what extent have I allowed my own human limitations to dictate my goals.
Don't get me wrong, I don't think I should shoot out from the start and try to win the marathon... but then again...
My human body has limits, because I'm human. My bones have a breaking point, my muscles and tendons can only do so much without proper training and nutrition. My heart can only pump so much blood and my lungs can only take in so much. But that's just my human limitations.
I was struck by two verses from Psalms in church this past Sunday that I want to share with you.
Psalm 147:10 "His [the Lord's] delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the speed of a runner"
Psalm 27:1 "The Lord is my light and my salvation— whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life— of whom shall I be afraid?"
Two seemingly unrelated verses, but I got some pretty cool nuggets for my running.
The first is pretty simple: God is not impressed, nor does He take pleasure in my strength. I can train well, eat well, and race well, I can qualify for Boston, destroy my PRs and even win the race on my own power, and God would take no pleasure in it, nor would he be impressed.
The second is even simpler: The Lord is the strength of my life. If I truly believe this, then all my racing goals are meaningless outside of this truth. When I cross that finish line by my own strength, then I get the glory; when I cross that finish line by the strength of God, then He gets the glory. If I am running on His strength, then I train in Him, I run in Him, He is with me and carries me through the hardest parts. Then, at the finish line, He takes pleasure- not in my strength or my successes, but in His glory and power and love for me.
I do not run for me, then, I run for Him. And if I run for Him, then I ask these questions for myself. Whose finger is this? God's, then why worry about this finger, for He is my strength. Whose hands are these? God's, for He is my strength. Whose lungs and heart are these? His. Whose hips, quads, hamstrings, legs are these? God's. Whose muscles, tendons, and bones are these? God's. If I am no longer my own, but God's, then it is in His strength that I build muscle. I run at God's speed, my pace is God's pace, my race is God's race. When I cross the finish line, it is God's time, not my own.
While running with this purpose in my heart, I can find that inner strength that I need. It's not about a time goal anymore. It's not even about the pleasure of finishing another marathon. Marathons are hard to run and there is a great sense of accomplishment when you finish, especially when making an ambitious time goal, but when the race is over... it's over. Your time is your time, that's it. You place where you place, that's it. Eventually you start looking ahead to the next race, the next time goal, the next training plan. But this revelation has renewed my purpose, beyond just finishing with a good time.
If the Lord is the strength of my life, then through Him, I can do all things. If, through him, I can do all things, then who or what am I afraid of? Bonking at mile 23? The runners wall? What wall? I looked up a hill today and decided there was no hill, just flat road. In the name of Jesus, I ran as though the hill was not there.
This applies to everything I do. The way I eat, the way I drink, the way I train, the way I teach. If my legs are God's legs, then I should run as though I had God's legs. If my arms and hands are God's hands, then I should use them as though they were His. If my mouth is God's mouth, then I should use it as though it were His. If my stomach is God's stomach, then I should fill it as though it were His.
The Lord is the strength of my life. What should I be afraid of? What can't I do?
Blessings.
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