Marathon Training Lesson #3

My training schedule called for one 'long run' a week. Long runs are so unpredictable. You can start out feeling great and just suddenly 'hit a wall'. The wall can be caused from lack of planning--not allowing time for adequate digesting of food, for example. It can also be caused by just pure physical problems such as cramps, shin splints, you name it. Other times, you just hit a wall for no apparent reason. I think these are just simply 'mental'. So much of running comes down to your 'mental game'. When I hit these walls, the only way I ever recovered was to refocus my thoughts. Halfway through my long runs, I began carrying scripture cards. When my mind would start to weaken, I would start praying scripture. Wow! This made a huge difference! I also began to shift my prayers to others rather than the 'me' prayers of 'give me strength, help me not be weary...' Refocusing worked; it worked every single time. It worked because I quit relying on myself and began relying on God. It worked because it quit being about me and started being about Him and others.

As I have been learning how to cope with 'the wall' in my training, I've thought about how much 'the wall' affects my daily life. I want so much to live my life focused on God first, others second, me last. Just like my runs, I can start off well. I get up and spend time with the Lord--I get filled up with Him with the hope that what I get filled with will flow out on those around me throughout the day. Just as physical 'training' is making me stronger to run a marathon, my daily time in God's Word and prayer is 'training' me spiritually to think and be more like Jesus. Starting the day off with God at the forefront is a great plan and gets that mentality of 'God first, others second, me last' in order. However, somewhere along the way--sometimes early on in the day--my mind shifts, these priorities change. 'Me' starts to creep up to the front. I hit the wall--the wall of 'Me'. I have found the wall of 'Me' to be the biggest challenge of my life. The wall of 'Me' disguises itself in all different ways, including what I have began to call 'emotional tizzies'. I can get worked up into an emotional tizzy in no time flat. And then my mind can become consumed with it. I've realized that I have to refuel my mind throughout the day with God's Word, not just in the morning. I've got to reframe and refocus my mind moment by moment. Just as running a marathon is a moment by moment battle, so is life. Focus, focus, focus. Where is my focus? What am I thinking on? Am I thinking about what I am thinking about? I don't want to be stuck behind the wall of 'me'. I want to climb it and conquer it and I know the only way to do that is through God's supernatural power.

'Test me, O Lord, and try me, examine my heart and my mind; for your love is ever before me, and I walk continually in your truth.' Psalm 26:2-3

'Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourself' Philippians 2:3

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things. Philippians 4:8

Marathon Lesson #2

About half way through my training, I became so tired, bored and burnt out with my 'route.' I was running the same route over and over, with minor variations to adapt for the mileage my training schedule called for. Simply put, I was in a 'route rut'. While I was aware of my 'route rut', it took weeks of 'pounding the same pavement' before I finally took action. Maybe this is because I can be the queen of procrastination. Maybe it was fear--it can be intimidating to change things up, when things are going along okay. FINALLY, one night before a long run, Eric and I charted out a new course for me. Wow, what a difference it made in my running the next day! I felt like a new person! I felt like there was spring to my step that wasn't there before! I felt renewed and refreshed. My running went to a new level as I left that 'okay' and 'ho hum' stage.


So often, I get into a 'route rut' in my life. You know, the same old, same old. I stay in my comfort zone. I don't change things up--I stick with the 'comfortable'. I put God in a box, expecting Him to work in the same way over and over and over. I put my head down and do my tasks for the day and miss out on seeing God in a new way because I am so caught up in my 'route'--my agenda. I get 'comfortable' among my group of friends, hanging out with the same people over and over and miss out on God working among other relationships that God brings in my circle. If God is working in our lives, we should not be stagnant; we should not be 'ho hum'. We should be ever changing, moving to a new place and a new level of intimacy. I should embrace the changes God brings into my life and seek the adventure, excitement and new energy that accompanies that.

Marathon Training Lesson #1

Throughout my training, some days of running were great and some were awful. Some days I felt I could keep going forever, other days I just willed myself through it, counting down the minutes until my run was over. Now, if I had began 'focusing' on those down days too much, I would have gotten in a discouraged state of mind and this would have began affecting all of my runs. then, I would have felt defeated before I ever began running, because discouragement breeds discouragement. Instead, when I had a bad run, I had to let it go and remember the next day was a new day full of new hope. Marathon training is up and down; it's a process, full of successes and full of failures. Every run is definitely not going to be perfect. In fact, often the hard runs are where I learned the most about 'coping', and those lessons will probably be what gets me through the real race.



All of this made me reflect on my own life. I have and will have many successes and failures along the road of life. I am a flawed, imperfect human being who is going to make many mistakes. Even as I try to live my life for the Lord, so often I am going to get it so wrong, even if my heart was to get it right. But God does not want me to stay focused on and 'sit in' those failures. He wants me to learn from mistakes but than move forward, focusing on what lies ahead and live life to the best of my ability--for Him. And if I let them, those failures are going to help shape me into a person with more character and wisdom for the next curve in the road of life. I also can't live in the successes, or I am going to become puffed up and full of myself and start relying on myself and not Him. The point? I've got to keep on, keeping on, not focusing on the circumstances of the moment, but choosing to keep my gaze on Jesus every step of the way.

Lamentations 3:22-23: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning;great is your faithfulness.

Philippians 3:12-14: Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus."