Run in such a way.

1 Corinthians 9:24-26
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. 25 Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26 Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. 27 No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
Recently, I decided to undertake one of the hardest things I have ever considered. I decided to run the Warrior Dash. For those of you who do not know what that is see this video | V In the process of this training, I have been doing some interval training with my wife, who is now a certified fitness instructor specializing in Mama Wants her Body Back, Stroller Strides, and Fit4Baby. For more info, click here Back to the blog: So in preparing for this goal, I have been training, and last week, I started running too. On Monday, I ran a half mile and on Friday, I hoofed it a mile. While my times were nowhere near as good as my high school days, I was very proud of all the things that my wife and I worked on together to get me here. I lost 27 pounds since the beginning of the year, I am eating more healthy, working out 6 days a week, and doing well... then something happened that threatened to knock me off course. In the past, when I have tried to lose weight, I have worked out, then when something happens, like I hurt myself, I stopped to heal, which is good, but then never start back up! (pssst... that's not so good.)

I practically broke my toe.

No, I didn't actually break it, I was walking around the corner and jammed my pinky toe on my left foot so hard, the skin literally split from my nail to the front of my toe. That was on this Sunday night. Every day for the rest of the week, I have been hobbling around, nursing my toe and having pain in my foot from walking unnaturally. This is where we get back to what God was talking to me about and why I chose this scripture. My foot has been hurting, it has been affecting my activity level, and even hurting my weightloss and training goal. My wife asked me the other day if I was going to be able to run my 2 miles (according to my +half-mile each time), and I told her I was going to just have to tough it up and do it. As I was riding my bike to work today, and getting dressed for work, I was realizing that God doesn't want us to start and stop and start and stop when we are injured spiritually. It is God's job to fix us, but we need to keep soldiering on. We need to keep trusting that God has got plans that are better than what we are dealing with in the short term. Just like injuring your toe naturally throws your stride off, Spiritually injuring yourself throws the rest of your life off. Instead of stopping altogether because "it's too hard," or "someone is judging me," or "its not fair," or "I am tired of this, I want to just do what I want and not feel bad about it," our job is to get back up and say "Father, I am injured, I need healing, until you heal me, I will keep on going." We have to keep going, we cannot stop. There are Olympic athletes that break things all the time and still compete and win medals, how much more should we, the elect of God, stand up and say that no matter the hurt, no matter what someone else has done, or what I have caused, I am all in and I will not relent.

I WILL NOT RELENT

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