Running....and other matters.

Everyone makes some sort of New Years resolution or goal for themselves right?  I hate making New Years resolutions--because they seem cheesy and seem like something that everyone else is doing so I don't want to do it (as you read through my blogs and posts, you'll discover that I have a love-hate relationship with doing what everyone else is doing).  Anyway.  So I have a goal set in my mind that I started the middle of December, faltered over Christmas, and dove right back into after New Years.  Yep...I am running! 

Currently, it's not far.  But the good news is that I am not running from anyone or anything!  A friend and I have decided that we are running in Grandmas Marathon in June, or perhaps the Fargo Marathon in May.  Ok, Ok!! it's not the whole marathon...it's just the 5K!  We are doing a training program called the "C25K" which I will somewhat sheepishly tell you is the "couch to 5k" training program.  So far we are on week 4 of 9.  And it's kinda fun, and kind of addicting!  Maybe I will strive for a 10k, or perhaps a 1/2 marathon by next year....guess we'll see first how the 5k goes. 

I am not sure why I am posting this really.  Maybe so that other people will keep me accountable. Sometimes it's easy to set a goal, but just as easy to drop it if you keep it quiet.  Can I admit something that I don't think I have really ever admitted in my entire adult life?  I hated physical activity of any kind as a kid.  Hated it.  Wasn't good at it....was picked last on all the "phy-ed" games.  I was the clumsy, uncoordinated campbells soup kid.  My parents told me once upon a time that I had "activity induced asthma."  Hmm...don't think that that really exists..but it was nice of them to make up.  So now I am running...and you can feel free to ask me about it whenever you want, and when I am up to 3 miles (5k), we can perhaps go for a run/jog.

You might be scratching your head about now wondering why I would just start babbling about running.  Don't worry....people do scratch their heads when I babble, it's common.  But there is a reason.  There is a verse that I sometimes read in the New Testament that compares our lives or faith to a race, or more accurately a marathon.  And I am just as determined to run a physical (5k) marathon as I am to run the race that is set before me; that is the marathon of faith.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses (those that were before us) to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down (like the excuses...the "asthma" I didn't have), especially the sin that so easily trips us up.  And let us run with endurance the race that God has set before us.  We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiated and perfects our faith.  Because of the joy awaiting Him, he endured the cross, disregarding it's shame.  Now He is seated in the place of honor near God's throne"  (Hebrews 12:1-2).

As I live my life, I am running now both in a literal sense as well as in a "spiritual" sense.  When I run with my legs there are many many people that I can look to as trainers and champions.  When I am running in the race of faith, it is Jesus Christ who I look to.