Sometimes I run - sometimes I walk.....

I am a runner. This is something that my running "coach" always reminds me of. It doesn't matter how slow or how far I go, I am a runner; but today, at mile two, that was hard to remember. 

I started out for my run with the thought that I wanted to go at least 45 minutes today, and I was doing pretty good up to about mile two. That's when I started to walk..."just for a bit", I told myself. Yeah - right.

I'm not sure if it was the heat that got to me, I did sleep late and linger over that second cup of coffee till after 10. Maybe it was the 13+ hour days I've worked most of this week starting back to school. Maybe it was that my blood sugar was a little high - I'm thinking a Little Debbie snack cake wasn't my best choice for breakfast. Maybe it was, "gasp", my age. For whatever the reason, I started to walk.

I've been trying to "come back" to running for a while now. I used to be fairly fast - well, for me at least. I could run for 8 miles with ease. Heat didn't even phase me. Now, I watch people who started running long after me going distances that I can't come close to. (I tend to forget that these same people are 10, 20, even 30 years younger than me and actually TRAIN!) At any rate, it can be discouraging. So today, when my run turned into a walk, I was not happy. That's when it hit me....at least you are still walking. You are moving forward.

Now I have to admit this thought was a bit funny. Of course I was still walking. I was two miles away from home! What choice did I have???

I think my life is something like my running career. At times I have felt the joy, the exhilaration of the perfect run. I am fast, my knees don't ache, my shoes stay tied, and I sprint across the finish line with ease - winning my age division (and not because I'm the only one in it!)

Then there are times when it seems like I just can't get it together. I start out okay but soon I'm slowing down, barely moving forward, wondering why I thought I could run this race at all.

Today it hit me....at least I'm still moving forward. The finish line may seem so far away, but still I move toward it. My speed isn't nearly what I'd like, but every step takes me closer to who I want to be, and closer to "home."

I love those mountain top experiences. I love it when it all seems to be going right. I don't like moving slow....but sometimes that's the only way to keep going.

As long as we're here on earth, we have a job to do. Sometimes we will run. Sometimes we will walk. All times we move forward toward the cross of our salvation...

But I will admit, I like it best when I can run!

Philippians 3:14 (MSG)

Focused on the Goal

^12-14 I’m not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don’t get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I’ve got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I’m off and running, and I’m not turning back.