Running and Following

​I planned a run with a co-worker while I’m here in Atlanta. The plan was to start at 6am and run the planned route of 3 miles. I’m training to run a half Marathon with my wife in a couple of months, so part of the training today was to run 5 miles but being in a different city I planned to only run 3 miles.  Therefore, we met at 6am and off we went. I forgot to mention my coworker is a big runner and runs long distance all the time and I do not! So, as we were running they were ahead of me the whole time and when we got to the road where we were supposed to turn to head back in order to finish the 3-mile loop, they decided to run up to this church and turn there and then head back. Well I kept running and a mile later I was wondering where this Church was that they were talking about. Then I hear my app on my phone say great job you hit 2 miles! I still had not glimpse of a church.
 
At this point I was getting tired and irritated. Finally, the church and I thought thank goodness because I need to stop here and pray I can make it back to the beginning. Then again, I ran and ran to hear my app say great job you have hit 4 miles and still no sight to the end. At this point I was done and about to call an UBER to come get me. 5.3 miles later I saw the end insight and was glad this was about over. Once I finished, I was grateful of the good run even though it about killed me. I got back to my room and started to laugh about this run.
 
It got me thinking about our walk with Christ. Our walk with Christ is not always fun nor did he say it would be. You can see this with the folks that actually walked with Christ. It was not always fun, nor did they always enjoy it, but they saw the bigger picture of the results of following him. We know while following him it will be bumpy but at the end of our time following we have a great place for us to be with him. The time and struggle we go through while following him will be such a blessing. Just as this this morning run was not fun and it hurt but it will better prepare me for the end result and that is to be able to finish the half marathon with my wife. As we are running with Christ think about the folks that see you stay strong and keep your faith. Plus God will push us to go that extra mile when we only want to go 3 miles.