"Run the Race"

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. -Hebrews 12:1

 Let us run the race which He has set out for us. While training for a half-marathon this past spring, I found this verse and used it as guidance for so many aspects of my life. First, running more than 3 miles at a time (let alone 13!) was going to need a serious miracle so I frequented this verse on my deathly hot 'long run' day or even on the 'short run' day when I wanted to be anywhere but pounding the pavement through campus. As it turns out, on the big race day in Nashville,TN this verse was present in a big way! As my friend, Emily, and I were truckin' down Mile 8, we looked up to a huge banner set up by a local church that displayed the Hebrews 12:1 verse. Always the crier, I teared up at the 'coincidence' that I knew could not have been just that. Quickly recovering as I realized that crying and running simultaneously were not a simple task, I really took to heart these words.

Secondly, the verse resonated with me as I contemplated my all too fast approaching college graduation. For those who are a few years out from their collegiate days and may not recollect the ominous feeling, graduating college seems like The End of The World. Officially. All our lives (until college graduation) we are making choices and decisions that will affect our lives...but only truly affecting them for the next 2-4 years. Everything leads to college; it is the top of the mountain and the four years at college are the slide back down until you hit graduation. And graduation? Well, graduation is the cliff at the base of the mountain which you have slid perilously downward to and cannot help but plummet off into an unknown oblivion. For those of us lucky enough to 'know' our future plans post-grad, there still exists this cliff of unknowingness. We still leave dear friends, leave familial comforts (be in money, location, or school breaks spent together), and leave the confident and cool person (ourselves!) we have grown to be for four kick-ass ('scuse me) years in the safety and security of our campus and small community. Anticipating graduating college and all the 'unknowns' that came with it caused me to cling to the Hebrews verse for dear life. God sets a path and while it may seem, at times, I wander further and further into a unfamiliar and unknown forest, the path is right and true and I must trust it. Without that trust, I'm not sure I would be able to make these great leaps which are most exciting to take.

I'll leave you with my favorite verse from the Old Testament and that will be enough God talk for the moment!

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, but in all your ways acknowledge Him and he will make your paths straight. -Proverbs 3:5-6

 Cheers y'all, Lis