Age Doesn’t Matter

You know, one of the great things about running is your never too young or too old to do it.  Of course there could be some physical limitations depending on your age, but for the most part from the time you can walk until the time you can’t walk anymore, most people have the ability to run and exercise at some level.

There will be many differences in the way we run.  Some will be fast, some will be slow.  Some people will only be able to run for seconds at a time and some for hours.  Some runners will have a beautiful and elegant stride, while others are painful to watch, herking and jerking their way along,  But who cares?  There’s always some benefit to exercise wherever you start out and you’ll never know where you might end up if you never start.

The Kingdom of Heaven works exactly the same.  There is no age limitation to join the Kingdom and walk in all that Jesus supplies.  There are no requirements to start running in God’s economy except that we turn from our sin and believe in everything Jesus has done for us on the cross.  We don’t need to be accomplished professionals, we don’t have to be good at anything, we don’t need good works on our resume and we don’t have to have any scriptures memorized.  No matter how young or how old we are, we can start running the race that God has set before us. It doesn’t matter what we look like or what we don’t look like and we can’t run anybody else’s race and they can’t run ours.  I encourage you to take your first step today or if you’ve stopped running I encourage you to start again.  If your already moving forward, great, now pick up the pace a little.

Progress

We’ve talked about vision several times in this series and how important it is to set goals and persevere until reaching them.  Unless we have a clear vision for where we are going and a passion to get there, it’s unlikely that we will.  But almost as important as vision is the ability to take stock of where we are currently.  This is an important skill for two reasons.  1) You will be able to determine how far you still have to go and 2) You can gain confidence and hope in how far you’ve already come.  It’s a great feeling to make progress, to know you’re getting closer to your ultimate goals and maybe even accomplishing some smaller ones along the way.  It is possible to get so wrapped up in how far you still have to go, that you never realize how far you’ve come, and that can be disheartening.

To Boston and Beyond (Wide Open Spaces)

This post is a continuation of a series detailing my journey as I attempt to qualify for the Boston Marathon in 2011.

As I ran today, I couldn’t help but get lost in the beauty of the Iowa countryside.  There’s something about farmland and rural Iowa that’s unique and friendly.  It’s great running trails in Boulder CO or in the city, but this is home.  I love passing by old country folk walking to the mailbox and other runners and bikers.  Thankfully nobody planted corn along my route, because staring at row after row of corn would get boring pretty quick.

Sometimes the long stretches of road and open country side makes for a lonely journey, but today all of the “space” around me, made me feel free.

To Boston and Beyond (Vision)

This post is a continuation of a series detailing my journey as I attempt to qualify for the Boston Marathon in 2011.

I know I’ve talked about vision several times in this series already, but the more I run, and the harder it gets, the more I realize it’s importance.

Both good and evil men have been evidence of the power of vision, and not just any vision, but an all encompassing vision that possess the depths of your being. Sounds a bit extreme I know, but most of the world’s leaders throughout history have been extreme.

Learning To Say No (TB&B)

This post is a continuation of a series detailing my journey as I attempt to qualify for the Boston Marathon in 2011.

Ran a good 10 miles yesterday. Because I’ve really just started running seriously, I don’t know a whole lot of people that do much running. As a result I’ve done most of my training alone, which can be difficult. A buddy of mine rode his bike along with me yesterday and we had a blast. There is a joy in being able to talk and share the experience with someone. We did the first 6 miles right at an 8 minute pace and the last 4 in about 7:20-7:30 pace. That should give you an idea of about where I’m at physically. The lesson I’ve been learning this week in training is that If I’m going to accomplish my goals, I’ll have to learn to say no.