Can you hear me laughing…I was stuck. I couldn’t say no. I wanted to say no and still had no desire to train for 18 weeks or run that far, but he had turned the tables. Stronger than my lack of desire to run that far, is my hope that my friends would come to know Jesus as their personal savior. I know from my own experience how much better life is with Jesus than without him…so naturally I hope this for my friends. So I chose to run.
So it is with a sense of humility that I say, “ I ran a marathon.” Yes, I physically did run 26.2 miles…but in no uncertain terms, I trained with God and ran for God. It is my desire to give Him all the glory (as little as there may be in my case compared to a competitive runner). Still, the training and running has been a time for me to learn a lot about myself and spend a lot of time with God. Between April and October I spent more than 80 hours training…that’s a lot of time to think.
Like I said, there are a number of thoughts I was going to share. But I think I will conclude with this instead. I woke up this morning to find Chariots of Fire playing on tv. I watched it.
“You came to see a race today. To see someone win. It happened to be me. But I want you to do more than just watch a race. I want you to take part in it. I want to compare faith to running in a race. It's hard. It requires concentration of will, energy of soul. You experien
ce elation when the winner breaks the tape - especially if you've got a bet on it. But how long does that last? You go home. Maybe you're dinner's burnt. Maybe you haven't got a job. So who am I to say, "Believe, have faith," in the face of life's realities? I would like to give you something more permanent, but I can only point the way. I have no formula for winning the race. Everyone runs in her own way, or his own way. And where does the power come from, to see the race to its end? From within. Jesus said, "Behold, the Kingdom of God is within you. If with all your hearts, you truly seek me, you shall ever surely find me." If you commit yourself to the love of Christ, then that is how you run a straight race.” 
“God made me for a purpose…but he also made me fast. When I run, I feel his pleasure.”
God did make me fast…but my fast days are about 20 years behind me. Today, however, I do feel his pleasure when I run. There were times between miles 20 and 26 that I was out of strength. It was then that I raised my hands to heaven and asked for God’s strength. Asking for his strength is always easy…just to ask for it….but sometimes we try to do it all on our own when all we need to do is call upon the Lord. I mean to truly believe in God and rely on Him. So, even though I am sure it looked strange to see someone running in a marathon with their hands in the air…it was my time to call upon the Lord…recognize it is through His power that I am able to run…and give Him all the glory. I did this at least a half dozen times over the last few miles of the marathon…and when I did…I was fast and felt no fatigue.
God is awesome! I believe he had a purpose for my marathon…all the way down to my race number.
Check out the race video.
