“Finish”

Running is a hard thing, especially when you have not done it in years.  I have started running again and will be running in my first 5k this Saturday. Will I be able to run the whole thing? Probably not, but I am going to try. In college I played baseball as a pitcher, so that meant you had to run all the time. I have always been a bigger guy, so running was not my favorite thing. In fact it was the worst thing about playing sports. The coaches required us to run 3-5 miles every other day. A few others guys and I made a pact that when we finished baseball we would never run again because we hated it so much, but over the years as my knees and back have begun to hurt, I decided to lace the shoes back up and start jogging. That first day back on the road was horrible! It brought back all those old feelings of running in college. But, I finished the first day and could proudly say, “I made it!”

Now I’ve been running three days a week for the past two weeks. A few nights ago, our entire family went out walking and jogging.  After a few streets, I got ahead and wanted to finish strong, so I jogged to the end of the street and sprinted back.  For some random reason, I got really brave and wanted to sprint the big hill. After about 4 steps, my mind began to take over and tell my body that “I am done! I’m so tired!” Just then my wife came up and shouted “KEEP GOING!  FINISH!” That put a fire in me, and I finished the hill. It felt so good to not quit at the hardest part of my run.

In my life I have watched many of my friends not finish what God called them to do. In life it is easy to start things but when you get tired, someone hurts your feelings, or you get mad you just give up and quit. But just as Courtney was there to encourage me to finish my uphill run, God is with you always encouraging you to keep going on your uphill journey with Him!  So if you feel like giving up this week, don’t!  God is right there with you and wants you to finish strong. He always has and always will make a way to keep going. FINISH!!