My Race

I’m not a runner.  I never have been.  Friends tell me they are training for a half-marathon or that competing in a triathlon is on their bucket list.  I smile and give them an encouraging “you can do it” or “good for you.”  Inside I’m thinking “why do that to yourself?”  I have a list of my own, but nowhere on there will you find anything having to do with running.  Sure, I have my brief fantasies about enjoying a good run - the sun on my face, the wind at my back, the exhilaration of endorphins surging, and a powerful feeling of strength in my legs, but these are only brief flights of my imagination. 

However, God had put a little kink in my plan to continue to avoid running.  I was reading Hebrews 12:1 (ESV):

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every single weight, and the sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us”.

I’ve read this verse many times before.  It’s a favorite of youth group and Bible study leaders (I’ve been among them).  This time I was particularly struck by the phrase “let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.”  Currently my race includes adapting to a new culture and country and learning to be a stay-at-home-mom, but I’ll be honest, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about it as my husband’s race.  We moved here for his teaching job, his vision of furthering his career, his dream of learning Spanish to better reach the growing Hispanic population, which is largely underserved by the American education system, and because of his adventurous spirit that longed to try out living abroad.  I was just along for the ride; part of the family and support system.  But the truth is that this is my race, a race that has been specifically set in front of me, not by default, but by design.  Furthermore, I am called to run it with endurance; to set aside everything weighing me down in this world and give it all I’ve got.  God put me right where I am, right now, for a reason.  His timing is perfect.

He has an overarching design that has been purposely put into place.  I’m simply called to trust.  I’m called to live by faith.  Despite my questions of my purpose in this current location, despite my doubts, and despite my whining nature I’m called to live in complete faith that this is his plan.  My race is in his hands.  I don’t have to see the finish line in order to run, I simply have to run and keep trusting.