I ran my third race last Saturday night. I was so excited when I found out about the race the day before, because it was one of the few races that fit into my crazy work schedule. Keep in mind, this one was at night. It was the first one I had ever run at night, and I had to work until 7:15 Saturday morning (I work the night shift). I registered online for the race the night before. When I arrived at the park for the race, no tents were set up anywhere. I kept hearing music, so I followed the sound thinking that was where everything would be set up. When I arrived, I still saw no tents. They were having a jazz festival (which was VERY cool), but no one knew anything about a race. I thought about getting back in my car and driving further, but I was unfamiliar with the park, plus I had walked so far that I kept thinking I had to be close to our starting point. I finally found a guy on a bicycle who said he saw the tent . . . on the other side of the park!!! By the time I arrived, I had already walked about 30 to 45 minutes. I was on time for the race, but my finish time was HORRIBLE . . . 53:15!!! My goal was to beat my last race time of 48:55. The lesson I learned from that is to make sure I find out ahead of time where the tent will be located so that I don’t walk around the park for 30-45 minutes looking and feeling like a complete nincompoop!!
I have also learned not to let setbacks keep me from achieving my goals. I remember when I was in school for Medical Billing & Coding, one of my most difficult classes was Anatomy & Physiology. Any subject having to do with Science was never my forte’. I was just a little apprehensive at first. I kept up with the reading (there was a LOT) and assignments, and I got an A in both the beginning and advanced courses, but there were a few setbacks along the way. I remember one section we covered that was especially difficult was the section on bones. The teacher gave us a diagram of the different sections of a skeleton, and we had to name each bone. So many of them were so similar to each other that I got confused and missed a good portion on the test. My grade was lower than a C. I looked at my teacher and told him that I was determined to get an A in the class no matter what it took. I was angry when I got home. I was not angry in a negative sense, but angry in a good way. I started on the next chapter with a new determination. I maintained an A for the rest of the quarter. The same thing happened with my running. I was frustrated with my finish time on Saturday night. Did I give up? Not on your life!! I went running again this morning and completed a 5K in 47:46! Sometimes when we have setbacks, we have to get creative and rethink our strategies in order to reach our goals.
Christians can never give up either. We may get discouraged if it seems like no one listens when we try to witness, but we have to remember that it is not our job to win people to Christ. God does that through His Holy Spirit. It is our job to be faithful at consistently planting the seed of the Gospel, and living it out so that others can see Christ in us. We must also remember that God never gave up on us. He gave His Son Jesus as the Sacrifice for our sin, and He daily leads us in the direction He wants us to go. When I stop and think of all that God is, my heart is filled with so much gratitude that I want to serve Him every day in the best way that I can. Yes, there will still be times when I will fail, but God knows that. He is the One Who gives me the strength to get back up and keep going every day!!
Until next time . . . let’s keep on running!!
This Race Called Life 
One thought on “Things I Have Learned”