While the coast we live next to in Santo Domingo isn’t what I’d call a beach, the paved sidewalks that line rocky cliffs hugging the water make an ideal running trail. Normally when I run, I can’t think of anything except for what’s playing on my iPod, but today I actually learned something.
I was on my return from the halfway point and still had yet to pass Adrian Tropical, this restaurant that serves as my “only ten minutes to go” landmark. I had already been running for fifteen minutes, I was tired, and wanted to give myself a break by walking for a bit. I tried to justify it by saying to myself, “I’ve already ran for twenty minutes…I worked out yesterday…what would stopping for a few minutes do to me?”
I even tried thinking of the satisfaction finishing a thirty minute run having given it my all the entire time would bring me (I’ve never been much of a long distance runner, so for me thirty minutes is plenty). But fifteen more minutes of giving it my all seemed too overwhelming to attempt.
Then Matthew 6:34 came to mind:
Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
As I meditated for a moment on how Jesus tells us to live life one day at a time, I was encouraged to complete my run the same way—one step at a time.
Literally, for the next full minute I kept mentally repeating after each step, “That one wasn’t so bad.” Before I knew it, I was back to my starting point and as I stretched out my sore muscles, I thanked the Lord for empowering me to attain that satisfaction of finishing well.
It may seem silly to find such victory in completing a half hour morning run this way, but I write about it because it really helped me make the connection between what we are incapable of doing on our own strength and what we can do in God’s when we walk with Him one day—or step—at a time.
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And don't start out so fast! Where's the biblical lesson there huhh?
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