Spirituality In Running

Today I talked with Jackson's awesome school teacher from last year, Mrs. McCombs. She is in her 50's and is still running marathons which is a phenomenal feat in my book. We talked about training and I tried to leach from her every insight I could gain from her.

She talked about what it's like to "hit the wall" during a marathon where you feel that every ounce of energy, strength, and will-power has evaporated, and you feel like you can't go anymore.

Then she said something that took me off guard. She said she kind of looks forward to this moment in the race because that's when she starts to truly rely on God. She depends on prayer. She focuses on not listening to the negative voice that is telling her to stop. She said "the wall" is a spiritual experience for her.

I have thought about her insights a lot. It seems like this is a pretty good metaphor also for the marathon that is our life:

We are going to have times that will be incredibly hard. There will be times when we want to stop and give up. Challenges will happen that we won't think we can handle. But....those are the times when we need to pray. And keep going. And be strong. And trust that God knows what he's doing and will help us.

Thanks Mrs. McCombs. That's how I want to hit the wall.