“Here’s what I’ve learned through it all: Don’t give up; don’t be impatient; be entwined as one with the Lord. Be brave and courageous, and never lose hope. Yes, keep on waiting — for he will never disappoint you!” — Psalm 27:14 (TPT)
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My son, Mac, ran a cross-country race a while back. Blue skies. Sunny day. Light wind. Stellar running weather. The courses often wind through woods or farmland. Fall in New England means leaves crunching under your feet, dodging tree roots here and there, and vibrant colors dotting the landscape. Everyone is hard-pressed to not see the beauty.
On this particular day, the course had been dampened by rain in previous days. Wet leaves can be slick and mud can be sticky. Mac happened to be wearing a new pair of sneakers and realized along the course the fit was, well, big. Too big. The mud squelched his sneaker, pulling it downward, his heel inching upward with each stride. Then his heel started to push down the back lip of the sneaker. Finally, he decided to do without the shoe all together. One bright orange sneaker lay abandoned on the course while he ran on.
His finish time that day was not memorable, but the way he finished sure was. Mac, of course, was furious about his time. Running a sneaker down on a muddy, slippery course isn’t exactly ideal. Yet, what struck me most was that he kept running. He finished the race — despite the course conditions, a very wet and muddy sock, and an orange trail marker left behind.
It reminds me of how we’re often asked to move through this life on earth. We know troubles are guaranteed. We are encouraged by Paul to be prayerful and filled with thanksgiving (Philippians 4:6, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). We are encouraged to recognize what James writes much about: Trials produce perseverance, which builds character to make us hopeful (James 1:2-4). Hope, ultimately, leads us to God.
Our hope, we know, is in Jesus. But if you’re anything like me, the balance of walking with Him and surrendering to His will is a tightrope. There is a reason it is called the narrow path: It’s hard. Sometimes it feels like running a cross-country course with only one sneaker. Awkward. Uncomfortable. Unexpected. We expect mud and wet leaves, but we do not expect to be running in a sock.
It’s a good thing Jesus knows us better than I know my son’s shoe size. Yes, my first thought as a parent after the race was, “How did I let him run in sneakers that were clearly too big?!” And, yet, isn’t that part of it? Jesus knows we need to learn the lessons — oftentimes, hard lessons — that bring us to hope. For these are the lessons that bring us to Him. I’lI take the lesson my son ran through that day every time over the sneakers he wore in future races.
Let go of your fixation — the time it took to finish the race — and focus on the greater experience. God’s story is bigger than all of us. We are part of it! Sometimes we have to let go of what we see through our narrow lens. We simply need to keep moving along the path He lays before us. Eventually we will see what He wants us to see.
How do we do it? Prayerfully. Gratefully. With trust in our hearts. Even when it is hard. Even when it is awkward. Even when it is uncomfortable. Sometimes we need to just do what Mac did: Kick off the burden and keep moving.
— Jade McCarthy
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