Get Back In The Game

I just got back from running a very unimpressive 2.04 miles. However, those two miles are probably going to be the most important ones I will run in quite a while.

Over the last two or three months my training has been sporadic at best. My enthusiasm dipped a little after running my first 100 mile ultra in June. Understandably I didn't have the same motivation after achieving something I thought might be beyond my capability. I have run few races in the last month, including a marathon last weekend, but I got through that mostly on shear determination and leaning heavily on miles accumulated earlier in the year. A new friend questioned why my Strava showed that I had been running races without doing any actual training. Guilty. He assumed I just didn't log everything on Strava. Yeah... right!

After completing the marathon last weekend I gave myself the obligatory two or three days rest. Three days soon became four, then five, until I'd gone a whole week without running a single mile. To make matters worse it was a Monday to Sunday so my Strava recorded a big fat 0.

Why did it take me so long to get running again? I was stressing too much about the big picture. In general I'm trying to keep my average weekly milage at about 30 miles. Plus I reaaaaaaaaly need to get into proper training for the Spine Sprint (40 miles along the Pennine Way at a time when the weather can be unpredictable to say the least) which is less than three months away. The pressure of a 30 mile target and a 3 month training block pushed me to paralysis.

So when Monday arrived, I knew I just had to do something, anything, to get moving again.

And there it is. 16 minutes. 2 feeble miles of clumsy jogging with a bloated stomach. No decent segments. No record pace. I made the decision to stop overthinking the big challenges and just get out there again. A run is a run, and now I'm back in the game.

Perhaps this prayer, prayed today, will change your life forever?

Maybe your faith is in a similar place at the moment? With good intentions you set yourself the target of reading the whole bible, but you missed a few days and the days became weeks which became months. Now when you see the bible on the shelf all you get is a wave of guilt and disappointment at the feeling of being too far 'behind', again. Maybe you want to restore your relationship with Jesus but you haven't prayed in a while so the number of things you want to say, or feel you should say, have built up so much that you just don't know where to begin. When you think about speaking to God you just feel paralysed by shame or the thought of all stuff you might have to deal with.

Don't wait until you feel worthy or ready or sufficient. You aren't any of those things. Jesus said to Paul,

“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” 2 Cor 12.9

Why not pick up your bible right now and read one verse of one Psalm? Then think about it for a minute. That would be enough.

Why not pause where you are to recite the Lord's Prayer? Or, if that's too much, your prayer for the day might be "Hey God, it's been a while". Perhaps this prayer, prayed today, will change your life forever?

Maybe tomorrow will be two verses of scripture and full, honest sentence in prayer - or maybe it won't. Maybe that's all you need to do every day for the next month. The point is, most of the effort is in just turning up and being willing to come to God, because he does all the work. He is the one who comes running graciously (and possibly gracefully) towards us. Just like your running training, the significant change happens in the small daily decisions to say yes. Whether it's lacing up your shoes or picking up your bible, it doesn't matter how far you end up going, that day you have made a decision to prioritise what's important and over time you will get stronger and healthier because of it.

It's time for you to get back in the game. Start small and start today. And may you know the grace of God who is watching and waiting with open arms.

Afterthought

We often assume that everyone else has their **** together, spiritually. But I have a hunch that if most of us were to read a chapter of the bible and spent 3 minutes in prayer every day, it would be a vast improvement on our usual routine. That will take you less time than it does to run a slow 2.04 miles. Keep it simple and see where God leads you.