-I was just updating my blog thinking about the various events of the past few months in my life. Then, I browsed the blogs of several of my friends. I had some funny thoughts in the process about how my blog seems kinda silly in some ways, filled with pictures of me running and doing triathlons. Most of my friends are writing about the joys of their children and their daily discoveries. As much as I love training and racing, my blog seems a little more self-centered than most of my other friends who are at a different stage in their lives. Anyway, my mom sent me this devotion the other day, and it inspired me to think about my faith and really think about shaping my character with these races and events that I focus on. I feel in some ways God has enlightened some self-discoveries and helped me to become a better person in these past several months of training and in these moments I feel at peace with my current focus. However, I know this is not a permanent phase in my life. In some ways, I look forward to the day of possibly posting pictures of my own children and their events rather than pages and pages of my own race stories. BUT-for now I don't have kids, and I truly do feel my training and racing can produce life changing character in me if I allow God to do so. It is a delicate balance though. Of course I am competitive, of course I get obsessed about my next event, and in some ways this is how God made me...but in the grand scheme of life, there are much grander things to focus on. I hope that as I train to complete my Ironman, that I can think about some life parallels that are more important than my next race. I hope that God can use these experiences to help me for whatever the next phase in life will bring. For now, I will enjoy checking all the cute pics of my friend's kids and continue to be more than a bit "obsessive" about my upcoming challenge of the Ironman, my gear, and my competitive nature. But, as my mom's devotion lays out a beautiful prayer below, may it be my prayer for suffering in competition as well as my prayer for life after Ironman training. May any suffering I endure, produce endurance, character, and ultimately Hope, as I continue on in my journey of life.
Here is the entire devotion that my mom sent:
"Read Romans 5:1-5
Paul’s poetic logic goes like this:
Rejoice in suffering,
Since suffering produces endurance,
Which produces character
Which produces hope.
We once thought that Paul’s poetic words were really more rhetoric than reality. Beautiful, but more lines of poetry than means of production. Then we became distance runners. And in distance running we found that Paul describes a basic dynamic of life, the actual dynamic of human growth. Suffering – putting in the miles – really does produce endurance. And when you have built endurance, it changes your character. And the new renewed character does produce hope.
Some disciplined and joyful runners who inspired us often ran rejoicing in their sufferings. Paul, Porter, and Terrell would call out, perhaps five or even ten miles into a run, “I feel happy! I feel healthy! I feel terrific!” Their enthusiasm was contagious.
One of the most surprising scenes of hope and joy is an Ironman Triathlon finish line. After 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of biking, and 26.2 miles of running, triathletes finish with huge smiles. The suffering has produced endurance that produces character, which produces hope.
One of us coaches cross country; the other runs cross country. High school students struggle to run at 6:00 AM before school. Some come and stick with it. Others do not. The difference so often between those who keep on running and those who don’t is learning to rejoice in the suffering, to rejoice in the effort that eventually leads to hope. And hope does not disappoint us, “because God’s love has been poured into our hearts.”
PRAYER: O God who goes the distance, help us embrace the suffering, knowing that you will transform it into endurance into character into hope – and your hope does not disappoint. Amen."
By Roy and John Herron
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