A friend from church, Nelson, who was a runner, made an announcement about putting together a group to run a race. I was intrigued. Me? A race? Hmmm... I approached him and asked if he thought I'd be able to do it. Well, if any of you are runners you probably can figure out his answer easily enough. Of course I could do it!! We runners love to introduce newbies to the joy of the racing world. I took his encouragement and ... wait for it ... ran with it. I signed up for the Smelt 5K in La Conner, WA, along with my husband, who had also begun running again for the first time since getting out of the Marines.
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| Hubby and I crossing the finish line of the 2007 Smelt 5K |
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| The group Nelson talked into running with him. Can you tell which is Nelson? Yes, he would be the experienced runner in the shorts and long sleeve tech top while the rest of us are all bundled up. |
I still recall the incredible feeling I had pinning on my very first race bib. It was a feeling of "arrival". I had done it. I had become a runner. With the closure of each safety pin I was closing a part of my self that screamed, "inadequate", "failure", "lazy", "scared" and replacing it with a new identity. This new identity shouted, "strong", "successful", "motivated" and "fearless". I was quite literally a new person and I was excited to live my life with this new identity. I cherished that race bib. It was the physical evidence of an internal change. I also cherished the bib from my first half marathon and my second and my third. In places of honor I gently put them. Eventually, the bib from my first marathon joined them followed by my first triathlon and my first ultra marathon. I came up with a great way to display all my hard earned bibs. I got a board with ribbons criss-crossing it, designed for photos, and began putting all my bibs in it. I have it set up beside my treadmill. It's a great motivational piece of "artwork".
However, lately, I've been noticing a disheartening trend. I'm not as quick to place my bibs in their place of reverence. Recently, some of them have been relegated to the place I take them off at and they can sit there for days, weeks, and, I'm sorry to say, even months.
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| Okay, these were on the board but they fell off and I've not picked them back up. Poor fallen bibs. |
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| This one was relegated to a shelf on my shoe rack. |
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| This one has been on a dresser for almost a year. Clothes have been put away and piled again but the bib has remained untouched. |
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| Poor forgotten bib on my wardrobe. |
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| Still on the bathroom counter where I left it two weeks ago. FYI the Butt Paste is because I chafed horribly on this race and diaper rash ointment is heaven to chafing pain. |
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| This is from my marathon this weekend. It's on my kitchen table but at least it's sitting with my latest running magazine and my Shower Pill Race Swag. |
What is the deal? Why am I suddenly leaving my bibs like scrap bits of paper? What was once incredible has become mundane. What was once life changing has become ... life. I still love participating in races but some of the thrill, the newness, the awe of it has slipped.
As I looked at those forgotten race bibs I thought about my bible reading, my prayer life, my passion for God. There was a time when I was on fire for God. I was in my early 20's, newly married, and finding my faith on my own, apart from my mom and dad and my role as a pastor's daughter. Jesus was becoming real to me in a way He hadn't been before. I longed to spend time with Him and would spend hours at a time reading the Word and listening to praise music. It was new and exciting and thrilling. I wondered why others weren't as enthused to spend time praying considering the power of prayer! Ah, the joyful and enthusiastic energy of youth! The unencumbered zeal of the young!
Eventually kids came along and along with them more adult responsibilities. I don't have 2 hours to spend in my bible and in prayer anymore. Often times, I find my prayer life consists of multiple short prayers throughout the day and my bible reading is listening to my audible bible while I drive home from dropping kids off at school or folding laundry. My running time is great for listening to praise music or talking with God but I fully admit, I often find my thoughts wandering in ways I can't even recall when my run is over. They certainly weren't praying the entire time. And as for music, I've gotten to a point where I often don't want it. I prefer the peace and solitude of a run. You know, my thoughts. Yes, those thoughts I can't recall.
However, this new way of spending time with God doesn't mean I love him any less. It simply means the newness of finding my own faith has worn off. It's like any new love; glittery and butterfly like feelings in your insides when you're near that person but eventually that gives way to deep trust, love, respect, friendship and companionship. Your relationship is a part of you. It defines you. I guess that's where I am with God now. It's not new anymore. The new thrill is gone but it's been replaced with familiarity and that's not a bad thing. I love being familiar with Jesus! That's a thrill in and of itself. 1 Cor. 3:2 says, "I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren't ready for anything stronger." A new relationship isn't always ready for the meat and potatoes that comes with a long term relationship. Milk is easy to consume and perhaps sweet to the taste (I suppose, it's not salty at least. I don't really like straight up milk so I'm a bad judge of its flavor - ha). Solid food requires chewing, more work from the digestive system, more filtering from the body. Yet, it provides more dense nutrients so the goal is to move on from milk to meat. I need to appreciate that I've moved on from milk. It's like those race bibs. Rather than being sad that a part of the thrill of running has subsided - pinning a race bib to my shirt - I need to recognize that my identity doesn't need the race bib to remind me I'm a runner. I know I am a runner. It's a fact now, a part of me, an innate promise and truth I carry with me all the time. Same as my identity in Christ. I know who I am in Jesus. I don't need the thrill of new love to remind me how much He loves me. I know He cherishes me because we've walked together for so many years.
That doesn't give me an excuse to grow stale in my relationship with God though. If I never did anything exciting with my husband, or looked at him with a sparkle in my eye, that would be devastating for our relationship. Goodness! Let's keep that fire sizzling! And I still train for races, get nervous before the start and talk with excitement about my accomplishment. So how does one keep the spark alive in a relationship with God that's grown comfortable?
My thoughts go back to Nelson and the photo I posted above of him with the crew he talked into the race. My husband and I weren't the only ones experiencing our first race that day because of Nelson. Go ahead, look back at that photo. Do you see the smile on Nelson's face? He was beyond thrilled that we were there. He was living his love of running through us. Even when the cancer took him down and slowed his running to a walk and a crawl, he reveled in knowing he'd passed his love of running on to others, he had encouraged others, he had led others into new lives as runners. His funeral was full of his family and church friends but it was also full of his runner friends. He had touched many lives through his gift of running. I always referred to Nelson as my running mentor but he also mentored spiritually. Nelson was just as great at encouraging people in their faith as he was their running. If you knew Nelson ran, you also knew he loved the Lord. He gave great lessons on how to use running to point to the Lord.
I've learned that some of my greatest joyful moments in the race world have been running alongside a friend who is running in their first race or first race of a new distance. Watching them pin on their bib, cross that start line, struggle through the difficult miles, approach the finish and then cross it with joy, accomplishment and success plastered all over their faces ... there's nothing like it! It takes me back to my own first race experiences and my first race bibs. I absolutely love working with new runners! Their excitement is catching. I have become like Nelson. Thanks Nelson! What a gift!
Walking alongside a new Christian is similar. They need encouragement, training, uplifting, guidance and often times, someone to literally run with them as they begin their journey as a person of faith. We aren't supposed to lead someone to Christ and then walk away from them, leaving them to figure it out on their own. Nope! We're to teach them! Proverbs 11:14 (ESV) says, "Where there is no guidance the people fall, but in abundance of counselors there is victory". Victory takes team effort!
The great thing is, not only is the new believer blessed by a mentoring relationship but so is the mentor! It's exciting to watch a new believer discover the deep and passionate love God has for them, to see them realize the gifts they have been blessed with, and the power of The Word in their lives. I've recently seen some Facebook posts by someone who recently turned their life over to the Lord and it makes me smile every time I see them post praises to God. Yes! They found it! They found Truth! My heart receives a kick of joy! The even greater news is this works beyond the new Christian. We who have been Christians for some time now, you know, those of us on the meat and potatoes diet can benefit from one another also. Think of all the ways your Christian friends and church family encourage you. Think of the joy you feel for them when they take on a new challenge or ministry, when you pray for them, when you see their prayers answered, when you study The Word together, when you worship together, when you serve together, when you simply hang out and laugh with one another. We believers need one another to encourage one another, to grow one another, to strengthen one another. Jesus knows this and it's why the bible tells us to meet together. Hebrews 10:24-25 (ESV), "And let us consider how to stir up on another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." Colossians 3:16 (ESV), "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God."
You know what the race bib signifies? It says, "I'm running a race!" Are you wearing your race bib? Is it brand new and crisp because your race has just begun? Or is it wrinkled, dirty, maybe hanging by 3 safety pins because you lost the 4th one somewhere back around mile (year) 35? Are you feeling tired? Worn down? Perhaps it's time to meet up with that person wearing the crisp new bib and run alongside them for a bit? Or if yours is the new bib, maybe you'd benefit from the wisdom and experience of the veteran runner? Find each other! Run together! And then proudly display those bibs!
You know what the race bib signifies? It says, "I'm running a race!" Are you wearing your race bib? Is it brand new and crisp because your race has just begun? Or is it wrinkled, dirty, maybe hanging by 3 safety pins because you lost the 4th one somewhere back around mile (year) 35? Are you feeling tired? Worn down? Perhaps it's time to meet up with that person wearing the crisp new bib and run alongside them for a bit? Or if yours is the new bib, maybe you'd benefit from the wisdom and experience of the veteran runner? Find each other! Run together! And then proudly display those bibs!
