Nine months for half a second

Well, here goes nothing...
I'm currently sitting in the lobby of the Hyatt Hotel right across the street from the St. Louis Arch on the second day of the NAIA National Track Meet. Yesterday I ran the 400 hurdles and advanced to semis today. So at 5:30 I'll once again don the purple and white spandex and race. And at 8:30 we run the 4x4 prelims, we're hoping we can have a repeat of last year and make it to finals, but we're going to need a big one.

So here's the thought behind the madness...
I've trained, our team has trained, 9 months to get to this point. Our first practice was September 7. We just lifted for the first 2 months and started running in November and now it's May. And what is our goal? If I shave off half of a second (.5) today or tomorrow I'll be pumped. Half a second?? No other time in your life is .5 worth a second thought. But you know what, it makes Paul's metaphor of running to win a prize a lot more poignant. I have trained the last 9 months so as to win the prize; is my relationship with Christ the same way? Do I pursue God with such a tenacity so that I can get .5 of an inch closer to Him? It seems that sometimes it's easy to only want to pursue God if it means we'll feel super close to Him, and usually we want that to be easy to do. But maybe it's time to start training to be close to God like we train for track. All out, everyday, leaving everything out there, pushing your body to discomfort, living with no regrets, just so we can be a little bit closer to God. And a little bit closer, and a little bit closer, and a little bit closer, and pretty soon, you're a lot a bit closer. Finding worth in something as simple as running can give perspective to something as complex as life.

"The real purpose of running isn't to win a race. It's to test the limits of the human heart"