Race Rule #1
Good Morning Girls! My writing has been a little sporadic this week. In fact, it probably will be for the next couple of weeks. I am up to my eyeballs with garage sale stuff (totally out of my comfort zone). With the sale, the race, and the end of the school year activities, I find my schedule is quite out of whack. So don't worry about me if I miss a day or two. Just pray that I can run and that people will pay lots of money for my old stuff! That will bless me tremendously!
Sunday morning while I was running (without my i-pod), I heard someone coming up behind me on a bike. My first instinct was to turn around, but quite quickly I felt the Holy Spirit say "don't look back". "Don't look back?"....hmmmmm. You know, Pastor Jim has been talking about that the last couple of weeks. Not looking back, forgetting that which is behind us. I started thinking about the dangers of looking back when it comes to running in a race......
When a race starts everyone is all mashed together. We all try to find our pace and our stride. We all try to break away and find some room. The crowd breaks after a minute or so, but there are always people around. There is always someone ahead of you that you are trying to pace yourself against, and keep up with. There is always someone behind you doing the same thing with you. And often times there is someone beside you that you just keep gaining and losing strides with. They pass you, you pass them kind of thing.
Picture this large group of runners. Now, when I am in a race, I am always curious as to who is behind me, and how close they are. I am curious, but I NEVER LOOK BACK!. I don't look back because one of three things will most likely happen. 1) I will trip myself up and fall, causing injury to myself and possibly others. This fall adds time to my race, and it will be more painful and difficult depending on my injuries. 2) I may bump into another person causing them to get off their path and their stride. I may not be hurt, but they are shaken and wondering what happened to them. Their race time is lengthened and they are left wondering "why did that happen to me?"3) I get off the path and end up in the ditch, scrambling to get back up and get on the right path. I run desperately and frantically trying to make up for lost time. If you think this is not possible you need to know that I have a dominate leg so I always run at a little bit of a diagonal and have to consciously keep it in check. If I am looking back and not paying attention I can easily take 3 steps to the left and end up in the ditch! (I know....it's interesting being me sometimes!)
The more I visualized this the more I started thinking the apostle Paul must have run, or at least witnessed a few races in ihis day! I mean right after he tells us not to look back, he says he presses on to reach the end of his RACE. He knows the dangers of looking back in a race are the same as looking back in life. How many times have you looked back and ended up tripping over yourself? What about the pain and injury you experience when you look back to your past mistakes? What about the time you wasted going down memory lane instead of moving forward? Or maybe by looking back, you affected those around you. You bumped and bruised your family. They watched you wobble and see you off balance and wonder what's going on. You appear to be fine, but you have left your family to dust themselves off from the fallout of your trip down memory lane. Or maybe while revisiting the past, you took too long of a look and ended up in the ditch. You got a little to close to the flashback fire and you got burned. You are desperately trying to "earn your grace back", and frantically taking matters into your own hands, trying to make up for what you lost. Can any of you relate with that? I sure can.
So remember Girls, whether you have running shoes or not, you are still in a race. And the same rules apply. The one I encourage you to live by today is race rule #1: DON'T LOOK BACK!
Philippians 3:13-14 No dear Girls, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
Love you all-
Jen
ps. 8 miles and 2:45 today. your prayers have been carrying me through......DON'T STOP NOW!!!!!
Sunday morning while I was running (without my i-pod), I heard someone coming up behind me on a bike. My first instinct was to turn around, but quite quickly I felt the Holy Spirit say "don't look back". "Don't look back?"....hmmmmm. You know, Pastor Jim has been talking about that the last couple of weeks. Not looking back, forgetting that which is behind us. I started thinking about the dangers of looking back when it comes to running in a race......
When a race starts everyone is all mashed together. We all try to find our pace and our stride. We all try to break away and find some room. The crowd breaks after a minute or so, but there are always people around. There is always someone ahead of you that you are trying to pace yourself against, and keep up with. There is always someone behind you doing the same thing with you. And often times there is someone beside you that you just keep gaining and losing strides with. They pass you, you pass them kind of thing.
Picture this large group of runners. Now, when I am in a race, I am always curious as to who is behind me, and how close they are. I am curious, but I NEVER LOOK BACK!. I don't look back because one of three things will most likely happen. 1) I will trip myself up and fall, causing injury to myself and possibly others. This fall adds time to my race, and it will be more painful and difficult depending on my injuries. 2) I may bump into another person causing them to get off their path and their stride. I may not be hurt, but they are shaken and wondering what happened to them. Their race time is lengthened and they are left wondering "why did that happen to me?"3) I get off the path and end up in the ditch, scrambling to get back up and get on the right path. I run desperately and frantically trying to make up for lost time. If you think this is not possible you need to know that I have a dominate leg so I always run at a little bit of a diagonal and have to consciously keep it in check. If I am looking back and not paying attention I can easily take 3 steps to the left and end up in the ditch! (I know....it's interesting being me sometimes!)
The more I visualized this the more I started thinking the apostle Paul must have run, or at least witnessed a few races in ihis day! I mean right after he tells us not to look back, he says he presses on to reach the end of his RACE. He knows the dangers of looking back in a race are the same as looking back in life. How many times have you looked back and ended up tripping over yourself? What about the pain and injury you experience when you look back to your past mistakes? What about the time you wasted going down memory lane instead of moving forward? Or maybe by looking back, you affected those around you. You bumped and bruised your family. They watched you wobble and see you off balance and wonder what's going on. You appear to be fine, but you have left your family to dust themselves off from the fallout of your trip down memory lane. Or maybe while revisiting the past, you took too long of a look and ended up in the ditch. You got a little to close to the flashback fire and you got burned. You are desperately trying to "earn your grace back", and frantically taking matters into your own hands, trying to make up for what you lost. Can any of you relate with that? I sure can.
So remember Girls, whether you have running shoes or not, you are still in a race. And the same rules apply. The one I encourage you to live by today is race rule #1: DON'T LOOK BACK!
Philippians 3:13-14 No dear Girls, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
Love you all-
Jen
ps. 8 miles and 2:45 today. your prayers have been carrying me through......DON'T STOP NOW!!!!!
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