RUNNING THE RACE!

Wow! To all who signed on, commented and emailed me, a huge thanks for all your encouragement! I’m so excited I can’t wait until tomorrow! I’m doing another blog today!!

It’s autumn here in Jersey. My favorite season. I love the colors, the coolness, the apples… and cross-country season! My son is an excellent cross country runner, and I have come to love this sport. It’s not because it’s exciting to watch. After all, the runners take off, and you don’t see a thing until 16 – 20 minutes later when the runners return to cross the finish line. I love the sport because although there is the team element, you can be a winner even if your team doesn’t come in first. Just improve your time from your last race, and you’re a winner. In fact, just crossing the finish line makes you a winner. How many of us can run those 3.1 miles?

At my son’s last race, as I was waiting for our guys to start coming back, the previous race was concluding. It was a girls’ race, and many girls had come in already when my eye caught one girl who was struggling with the last ¼ mile. She was bent over, and it was clearly an effort for her to put one foot in front of the other. And it was uphill besides! Then I saw 5 girls run over and begin running beside her. They had already crossed the finish line, some wearing medals indicating that they had been in the top 10. But now they ran beside their teammate shouting encouragement along the way. “You can do it, Jen!” “Keep it up, Jen!” “You’re almost there, Jen!” “We’re with you, Jen!” Jen still struggled, but her head lifted higher. She found new energy to keep going. (It was all I could do to not start bawling out loud.) I had just witnessed teamwork at its best.

And that is what we are called to do as well. We are all part of the same team, and we must continually encourage one another as long as it is called today. Solomon tells us that two are better than one because if one falls down, the other can pick her up. He goes on to say, “A cord of three is not quickly broken.” You, me and God –now that’s a team!!

Susan