In 1990, Georgene Johnson turned 42. Unhappy and out-of-shape… she committed to make some changes in her life to make the second half better than the first. Her first act of improvement… running. Georgene decided to enter a 10K race that was coming up in her community. She prepared herself and when race day came, she was ready to run the 6 mile course. The race started… and about 4 miles in, she turned to a fellow runner and asked when they were going to make the turn and head back. The fellow runner looked at her with a puzzled glance and kept running. Why the odd look? Turns out, Georgene wasn’t running the 10K she had signed up for… that started at a later time… instead, she was running the Cleveland Marathon! And 26 miles later, she crossed the finish line. She had never run that far or that long… but she just kept going. When asked why she didn’t stop she said, “This is not the race I trained for. This is not the race I entered. But for better or worse, this is the race that I am in.”
Have you ever felt like that? Prepared for one test but given another much larger one? Underequipped? Overwhelmed? Pushed right past your comfort zone into the land of “why me?” If so, you aren’t alone. Many find themselves in a much longer challenge than they ever thought they’d get through… faced with the choice of stopping or running… pushing on or shutting down. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 12 that we should keep going… to run the race that has been marked out for us… even when we feel like we can’t pick up our feet. How? The verse tells us to keep our eyes on Jesus. Look to Him when it hurts… turn to Him when we don’t understand.. lean on Him when we struggle… and trust in Him when the course seems never-ending. You may not see the finish line but Christ does. He knows you can do it. And with every bend in the road, He’s there not only cheering you on but strengthening you every step of the way.
