I have never been much of a runner in my life and have never gotten to the point where it was enjoyable to me. I never enjoyed on set of sprints the coaches tirelessly had us run for basketball. Running endless laps around the soccer field in high school and sprinting from one side of the field to the other seemed meaningless to me at the time. The countless laps around the baseball field didn’t seem to help the slowness of feet either. My teammates called me “Bigfoot Hanson” and I believe it had more to do with the weight my feet seemed to carry than the size of my size 16 shoes. In my sports the coaches never encouraged us to pace ourselves. It was always sprint, sprint and sprint some more.
There are sports where pacing yourself is not only a good thing but it is mandatory if you desire to finish let alone win. Running long distance would be a classic case for this type of ideology and also a long distance swimmer. I was fascinated watching Katie Ledecky race the 1,500 meter race. When everyone else was pacing themselves for the last couple laps, Katy found her fast pace and kept it there. It was ‘throttle down’ the entire time she was in the water and I thought to myself, and actually said out loud that the other girls in the race must have been demoralized as she would reach a wall to flip and turn for the opposite direction, she would begin to pass the girls heading the other way who were not even close to the wall to make their turns yet. Katy had set the pace and she was not looking back.
It seems as though the pace of life is on the cusp of beginning again whether we like it or not. School is starting and that means all the activities that go with it suck us into the inevitable vortex of running here and there…
Three things that will help sustain us along the way of this grueling race:
1. Scripture – Let the Living Word ooze life into us. Try it if you have not before and you will see that this is the only book in the universe that actually comes to life.
2. Pray – Turn our cares over to the Holy One. Time after time and burden after burden, give them away to God. He loves being the One who will sustain us. Try it, it is part of pacing yourself.
3. Hugs – something about looking someone you love in the eye and giving them a big morning squeeze says, “You needed that and so did I.” It is so much more pleasant to walk through life know two are better than one.
Pace yourself with these three things…
GateKeepers Ministries 