The Beauty of Endurance

I was asked during the summer if I would be willing to help coach Cross Country at our local high school. The head coach is a member of our Church. She believed that my work ethic in the area of my own personal fitness would be helpful. I agreed, and it has been an amazing experience so far.

There is a lot that goes into training a runner. Especially long distance runners. While we can help with strides, breathing, how to manage different aspects of a course, and increasing distance; there is one area that belongs solely to the runner. Endurance. As coaches we can give encouragement. We can train them. We can remind them of technique. However, what they must learn to overcome is that voice inside of them that says "slow down" or "stop."

I was reminded of this again yesterday. We have a couple of runners on our team who are young. My encouragement to them right now is to run a race without walking. I want them to continue to push themselves even when their body is asking them to give in. I was standing at the 2 mile split calling out times. When our last runner came across that line, I was shouting out times and how to make adjustments for the remainder of the race. The course was flattening out, there would be a big down hill grade, and the rest was up to them. My last runner was exhausted. It was hot. There was no cloud cover. He desperately wanted to walk. As he rounded the curve above my position, I continued to shout out encouragement to him. He was struggling. As he came by me once again, I began to jog beside of him. He told me he wanted to stop. He couldn't keep going. I just kept encouraging him. He talked about stopping again. I told him he could do it. What happened next I didn't expect. There was a runner just ahead of him who turned around. "You can do this," he said. "Just run with me." My runner never stopped. Inside, he was hurting. He was tired. But he never stopped. And he recorded his best 5k time to date.

This moment has captured my attention. This runner of ours was next to last. What would it matter if he stopped? Who cares if he would finish last if he began walking? As I followed his progression, staying within earshot, I continue to shout out encouragement. And he continued to respond. Not only did he not walk, he finished 2 minutes ahead of a guy he barely edged out last race. I told one of the other coaches that I never believed I would be so excited about someone finishing this late in the race, but they just didn't know how far he had come. He's learning endurance. He's learning that there is more in the tank. He is learning how to give all that he has within him.

The writer of Hebrews talked about "running with endurance the race that is set before us." He said this to a group of believers who were experiencing difficult times. I'm sure there was talk of giving up. Questions that asked if it was really worth it. The thought that they could simply finish the race through compromise. But this early church leader continued to shout out his encouragement. He reminded them that they were not those who would fall back, give up, or compromise their faith. He spoke of Jesus' willingness to finish the race that was set before Him. Even though it meant that He would endure death itself.

The beauty of endurance is that it teaches us there is more inside than we realized. That even in our weakness grace abounds. That it is here we discover that God's strength is perfect.

Personally, I don't know what you may be going through. I don't know what challenges you may be facing. I cannot speak to your situation precisely. All I can say is that through my own experience, you can trust in the nature of your Heavenly Father. You can experience His grace. You can feel His strength. You can discover that you have everything within you through His divine power to finish the course.

The faith that we are associated with has a long history of those who endured despite difficulty. Those who went through ridicule and persecution. And even those who died. Those who carried their faith to an early grace because they would not give in. That, my dear brother and sister, is our heritage in the Lord. While everything screams that we should give up, the Lord runs with us. While we want to back down, the Spirit says, "Run with Me." When it feels like we are all alone, there is a great cloud of witnesses that are with us. They chant our name. They applaud our effort. They believe in our ability.

It has been said before that it's not how you start the race that matters. It's how you finish.
The Christian life is not a sprint. It's a marathon.
There is a lot to learn. A lot to overcome. A lot to discover about the Lord and ourselves in the journey.
Don't stop now. There is glory yet to be revealed in you.

"Endurance is not just the ability to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory." ~ William Barclay