Are You Running Alone?

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” Hebrews 12:1-2

The anxious excitement was palpable – thousands of runners packed into starting corral 3 with me, awaiting the bang that would unleash us on the 26.2 mile course. Goosebumps covered my arms and legs as I shifted from side to side trying to stay warm. I lost the two friends I was planning to start the race with and was feeling a little anxious and disheartened. Then I thought, how fitting to embark on this thing the same way I had done all the training – just me and God. But, as I looked to my left and right and then forward again, an endless sea of bodies as far as my eyes could see, I smiled. This wasn’t like training. I wasn’t alone.

As the bang went off, we took off like a massive wave breaking on the seashore. Together. All running with different rhythms, fueling techniques, paces, and with different motivations (probably more similar than we knew at the time), but still together. Still running the same course, the same 26.2 miles. There’s an unspoken bond on the course – we’re all going after the same goal, crossing that finish line. The camaraderie with the runners surrounding me on all sides coupled with the knowledge three of my good friends were also out there pushing through filled me with a sense of comfort. And more than that, it filled me with strength and determination because of this simple truth: I was not alone.

It is one of the biggest fears living deep within each of us, whether we are brave and broken enough to admit it – being alone. The deepest longing of the human soul is to be loved and accepted by others. To walk through life with people who know you and will stick by you. This longing can be satiated by friends or romantic love, but it cannot be truly fulfilled in anyone other than God Himself. That pull? That ache? What you’re longing for isn’t really another relationship, promotion, or new technological gadget. It’s the Father whispering to your heart, calling you to Himself. As it says in Ecclesiastes 3:11, “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.” In Him alone is true life and hope found. In Him alone can you find true unconditional love, which despite knowing every dark corner of your heart, will never fail and never leave.

As believers, it is vital we remember this. Our identity and worth lie in the eyes of God, who is both Yahweh and Abba. He is with us always! So, even when I was training alone, He was always with me. Even when I am at home by myself, He is with me. But, just as I was not the only one running the Twin Cities Marathon, I am not the only one running a spiritual race with Christ. We are made to live and breathe in community – not to exist on an island. The Bible talks about the Body of Christ and how He is the head (1 Corinthians 12 – go read it quick!) and we all have a part. We cannot exist without each other. Could I run a marathon with just my ears and hips? No! Okay, that is a pretty ridiculous thought, but you know what I am getting at. I needed my legs, my arms, my shoulders – my whole body working in tandem to make it. In the same way we need our fellow believers for encouragement, for building up the body, for ministering to the world! So, we cannot ignore our fellow ‘spiritual runners’ so to speak, who are also on this course with us. While I was running the marathon, I only had one headphone in so I could hear what was going on around me, so I could soak in what was happening and be aware of other runners. I remember when the cold rain started falling harder just as we were nearing the end. I was running between two guys, one older, and one younger. The younger one was hurting a lot, “Man this rain is just killing me, I don’t know if I can do this anymore.” The older one shared where he was at, “I know and I feel it too, but we just have to keep going, we’re almost there!” I smiled, despite sharing their fatigue and shivers, “Just a 5k left guys. We can do this!”

It was brief and we only ran together for about 2 miles, but it made a huge difference for each of us to speak out pain, exhaustion, and even a fear of not being able to finish. To be real with where we were at because we knew the other two had already also experienced 23 miles of this – there was a deep, shared understanding that only comes from running the course yourself.

Are you paying attention to those who are around you in your community? We talk about community a lot – it’s a huge buzz word in the Christian world right now – but are we really going after it? Are we being real with the people God has placed in our lives for this leg of the race, or this season? Those two men were only a small part of my marathon race and we went our separate ways, but for that moment, it was critical for all three of us to experience and run those 2 miles together. Why do we waste time pretending like everything is okay when we know it’s not? We know our fellow believers are running this spiritual race too. You know from your own experience how hard and painful it can be at times, so chances are they are experiencing it too or at least have at some point in their journey! One of the amazing things I love see happen is how vulnerability begets vulnerability. When one person speaks out in courage and shares a deep seated fear or lie they have been wrestling with – let’s use my own battle with worth and adequacy as an example – I am always amazed at the sighs of relief and near immediate, “Wait, you too?!”

My dear brothers and sisters, can we please realize we are all running this course together? Living our lives for Christ is not an easy road and we get sweaty and fatigued along with the joyous bouts of adrenaline. We all know this because we have experienced it in our own stories, so why do we pretend like it’s all good all the time? Let’s engage with each other! Let’s celebrate what Jesus is teaching us and how He is at work in our lives – speaking that out to each other! And let’s also realize it is okay to look at your fellow believer and say, “I don’t know if I can keep going.” They will be there to encourage you and speak truth and you will be able to take another step. If you rely on your own power alone, I don’t think that’s enough. It never has been for me personally.

A word of caution or maybe it’s just more of a reminder along this train of thought: you cannot rely on someone else’s training and strength to finish for you. Just as I could not rely on the runners around me to finish my marathon, we cannot rely on the faith of others as our own. Yes, we run together, but we are each still running our own race. Yes, running with those guys and others throughout the marathon is one of the reasons I was able to keep going and actually finish. But ultimately, it was about what I had put into my training, how I had been fueling, and where my mindset and focus was at. It was my own two legs that had to carry me across that finish line. (That’s one of the course rules by the way – you have to be able to cross that finish line on your own strength without any assistance.)

So, in the same vein, I would say you need to own your own faith. You cannot ride the coattails of a friend, parent, or fiery pastor who always gives a good word. You are running your own race at your own pace and you cannot rely on his training or her training to help you finish. They are important parts of your race, but it is about what you have put into it and where you place your focus – which is where we’re heading next.

Besides fueling, one of the main topics of discussion in my training book was self-talk and visualization. In other words, what goes through your mind? What are you focusing on? The biggest battle you will face when running a marathon is usually not physical – it’s mental. As the miles rack up and you start hitting the wall, what is the tone of your thoughts? Is it filled with defeatist, negative self-talk? Doubts of finishing, wondering why you even started in the first place or a focus on how much everything hurts? That is a game changer and a race breaker. Even from the very beginning of my training, they suggested practicing positive self-talk and visualization – pressing play on movies in your head of finishing the race, or of a run when you felt the strongest. I’ll share one of mine with you for fun. You know that scene during the epic battle for Helm’s Deep in Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers when Aragorn suggests to King Théoden to ride out with him one last time and they proceed to break through those doors and cut through the orcs on that bridge like Moses parting the red sea? When I would start to get tired, I would picture that scene and imagine their swords cutting down my fatigue and pain like orcs, paving a way, allowing me to press forward.

You might be laughing at me, but try running a marathon and using some visualizations of your own and you won’t be laughing anymore! They work! As does having a mantra to speak over yourself. I felt really dumb writing out a mantra but I wanted to give this training everything I had and if it meant strengthening my mental game, well, I would do what the experts suggested. Here’s what I came up with:

I am a marathoner.

I love to run and do it four days a week.

I am mind-body strong, getting stronger every day.

With each step, each breath I get stronger.

I never get tired and I will not stop.

Papa is with me.

‘Strong and steady baby.’

I am His.

I am a marathoner.

I repeated it to myself every day and memorized it. I can’t tell you how many times on my long runs this little mantra saved me. It encouraged me to keep going and reminded me of truth when I couldn’t feel it. It empowered me to take one more step…and then another. As I repeated these things to myself over and over again, I realized they were true and they were happening! By the time I found myself on the course on race day, I only needed to pull this out of my arsenal a couple of times because I knew I was strong, I knew I would not stop!

Hebrews 12 has been the theme verse for this series and here is where I want to hone in on the first part of verse 1, “…let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith…”

Laying aside every weight took on a new meaning after 26.2 miles. When you’re just going out for a mile jog it doesn’t seem like a big deal to carry along a big water bottle or your big ol’ jacket, but when you increase that mileage up to 26.2 you will notice it makes all the difference. You want to run with as little as possible because over that much distance, any added little weight, even a lightweight rain jacket will start to feel like a winter parka wrapped around your waist. Take my little running water bottle – didn’t even notice it over my 8 or 10 mile distances, but by the time I got to my 16 and 18 mile runs, I noticed my upper arm and shoulder were really sore!  Carrying that extra weight for 3 miles: easy. But, for 26.2 the weight becomes more than noticeable and your arms will scream in pain.

In the same way, what are you carrying with you on your spiritual race? We’re in this for the long haul, so anything you carry is going to take its toll in the end. The writer of Hebrews even calls out sin specifically as one of these things; we don’t even have to guess! What old sins are you holding onto? Maybe they’re not old, but new or ongoing. Have you forgotten that ALL of your sins are forgiven? Jesus doesn’t want you to hold onto them any longer – they’ve been paid for! Take them to the cross and leave them there where they belong. As the Bible tells us in several places (I will highlight just one from Hebrews 10:12), “But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God…”

It has all been paid once for all! Romans 6:6-7 reminds us that we are no longer slaves to sin – we are free! It doesn’t mean we won’t still struggle with sin (we live in a fallen and broken world), but we are no longer required to do its bidding. We belong to Christ and because of that, we can throw it off – because of His payment.

Another weight we can and should throw off while we run this spiritual race? Lies. Satan is referred to as the father of lies in John 8:44, “…he was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” He will hit us where it hurts the most, in the struggles of worth and inadequacy. He will make us think we have nothing to offer and no one cares. He will tell you your voice doesn’t matter. His tone rings with condemnation, annoyance, shame, and impatience. His is the voice of the thief who comes only to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10). Do you know this voice? Have you heard it echo time and time again across your heart and realize it is beginning to sound like truth? I know I have. And if I am being honest, there are times I still hear those lies and still struggle to battle them.

But, there is another voice calling out in the wilderness. A tender, loving, patient voice. The voice of the Good Shepherd (John 10) who loves and leads his sheep with all the patience and compassion in the world. His voice is the voice of life, freedom, and truth, “and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free,” (John 8:32). My brothers and sisters, you cannot recognize the lies for what they are if you do not know the truth. Fill yourself with truth DAILY. Preach the Gospel to yourself DAILY. The Hebrews 12 passage talks about focusing on Jesus while we run, so fill your life with Him and what He has done and promised!  Create a mantra of truth if you have to!

I am loved.

I am chosen.

I am seen.

I am forgiven.

I am cherished.

I am beautifully in process.

I am a precious child of the Living God.

He is never going to leave me.

I am free.

So, just as the mental game is the bigger battle (in my opinion) when it comes to running a marathon, so it is with our spiritual race. What are you filling your mind (and heart) with? Truth? Encouragement and wisdom from those running with you? Or is it the negative self-talk and lies? I don’t know many people who finished a marathon with a train of thought like this, “Man, I suck. This is hard. I’m the worst and I cannot believe I actually thought I could do this. I’m weak, slow, and stupid.”

Where’s your focus? Are you going to listen to the voice of the Shepherd or the thief?

What you speak over your life and what you allow others to speak into your life will make a huge difference in your race journey.

Lastly, most people would say one of the best parts of running a marathon is the people cheering you on – the spectators. When I was running the marathon it was a HUGE encouragement and boost of energy to see friends and family along the course, cheering me on. They had come out knowing how important this race was to me and watched and encouraged me along the 26.2 miles – through the good, the bad, and even the ugly. They couldn’t empathize with me, as they weren’t physically running the course, but they could tell how much hard work it was and how inspiring to see all these runners keep pushing and keep heading toward that finish line. To see men and women in their 60s and 70s running this thing, to moms and dads of all ages, to young athletes to people like myself who were never considered athletic by any standard, all commit and never give up…that’s inspiring.

As I have said before I am not athletic and never really have been, but I did it. I finished a marathon. I truly believe that if I – normal, average, little old me – can finish 26.2 miles, anyone can. I’m no one special, I just decided to do it and committed. I followed the training advice – getting the miles in, fueling along the way, positive mental game, and having fun!

As Hebrews 12 tells us, we are running this spiritual race surrounded by a cloud of witnesses, or spectators if you like. You might not know or realize who is watching you run. You don’t know who you will inspire or who will start to wonder, could I do that too? Despite injury, rain, or cramps, you press on. Despite sickness, sin issues, or pain, you press on. It isn’t just the fact that you are running, because if you’ve made a commitment to Christ, you are, but my question is this: how are you running?

Are you aware you are not all alone on the course? There are people alongside you for different legs of your race. Talk to them, spur each other on. You’re all headed toward the same goal.

Is your focus on Jesus? On His truth and His voice instead of the lies?

Have you thrown off excess weight so you can feel the freedom and run unhindered?

Do you realize you’re surrounded by a cloud of witnesses? You can’t ignore the people in the crowd/along the sidelines – you’ll miss out on a huge part of the race experience.

Next week, the final truth in this series: How is Your Perspective?