"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." 2 Timothy 4:7
"We get by with a little help from our friends." Ringo Starr: Beatle
You can tell I am back to consistent running right now after a VERY busy season! You can tell because I have a million blogs running through my mind. If you have read my blog for any amount of time, you know that when I run, God talks. Actually, I think God is always talking....but when I run....I LISTEN!
Before I start this blog, there is one bit of running advice I feel the need to give. I LOVE the song, Come Sail Away. It is a GREAT song! I love the story. Anyway....I USED to love that song. Advice: If you are on mile 2.75 and promise yourself you will run through the next song.....you better make sure the next song isn't Come Sail Away....or that you are running really, really slow!
Onto the devo.....
If you read my previous post, you know that I have been immensely blessed by Lisa Welchel's book, Friendship for Grown Ups. She uses a lot of metaphors for friendships, obstacles, and soul friends. Things like velcro, bricks, walls and Emmitts. I like those Lisa Welchel metaphors, but I am a runner and I think in terms of tennies, sweat, and races.
Friendship really is like running to me. Everyone can do it, but not everyone is good at it. Some people hate it. Others are addicted to it. Or maybe it is just that we hate working at it....but the pay off is so good!
There are lots of different kinds of runners. Take my husband. He can smoke my bootie in a sprint, leaving me panting in the dust. But, get us on a 4 mile trail and it is a different story. Then there is my friend, Emily, who runs marathons. In any case, I think in friendships, we are all part of a running team no matter what our ability.
I have lots of friends that I run sprints with. These are my friends that I really like and have wonderful relationships with. We enjoy each other immensely, but we don't always get together. We really like each other, but regular get togethers aren't always possible. We spend little bits of time together when we can and we enjoy each other's victories and triumphs and encourage one another through the tougher races that we run together. It is fast and furious and sweet for a short time.....until the next time the baton comes my way.
I like sprints. They are often too short....but refreshing. In my case, they aren't that common, so I appreciate them all the more when I get to run them. But truth be told, I am more of a distance runner. Not a marathoner by any means! But, I enjoy running slower for longer. It takes more time and effort to run a race of this sort. I have friends that are faithful to run these distances with me. These friends are the ones who have committed to the race with you. They will run with you as long as they can or as long as you can. My distance friends have endurance. We have run farther than I have with lots of my other friends and have seen me sweat more and pant harder than other people in my circle of friends. These are the people that I know I can count on. If the race is rough, they are not the ones who tell me to slow down. They are the ones on my team who urge me to go on. Even if they choose to slow down behind me, they are cheering me on. And if I am lagging behind, they reach back to bring me forward. Either way, we see each other in celebration at the finish line. It is a smaller circle of friends on this team, but there is deeper relationship.
The greatest runners in my circle though, are like Jim Redmond, who Lisa Welchel does talk about in her book. Jim ran the race of a lifetime with his team mate. Jim's son, Derek was trained, prepared and running to win gold for Great Britain in the 400 meter at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Derek took off after the gun went off and started well....but he pulled his hamstring and went falling to the ground. He got up and hopped along to finish the race. Up with the spectators, a man pushed his way through, and threw off the holds of the security guards and ran out to help Derek up....and to help him cross the finish line. That man was Jim Redmond, Derek's father. Not content to watch his son hobble on his own to the finish line, he lifted Derek and helped him finish well. I have only a few friends like this. The ones that I can let see that I am injured and hobbling and know that they won't just sit there and watch me try to finish the race by my pathetic self, but jump the bleachers to run onto the track and help me finish the race. These are the ones that run the HILLS of life with me....not just the level, cushy track. These are my marathon teammates!
Somewhere along the line, we seemed to have gotten the impression that only the marathon teammates count. That our 5K friends are not as important. And forget about those fair weather sprinters! Nothing could be further from the truth. I like how Lisa Welchel reminds me in her book that Jesus cared for everyone during his earthly ministry. He made lots of friends all over. But he chose 12 to be closer. 12 to walk the day to day life with. And of those 12....there were only 3 he invited into his inner circle. To see his deepest pains and struggles and greatest joys. Were Peter, John and James more important than the others? No...those other men were near and dear to Jesus. Hanging out with everyone at the wedding in Cana was fun! Good fun for everyone! But the Last Supper was special for a unique few. And the Garden of Gethsemane was intimate. All of those people were important to Jesus. He needed all of them to demonstrate good relationships.....but he also needed them for different relationships.
I am so thankful to run the sprints with those fun friends of mine. And so privileged to run alongside my 5K friends for longer distances and tougher terrain. And I am blessed by the people who carry me through my marathons in life. My life would be less if any one of them weren't part of my life. Know why? Because we all have the same coach. He is the only one with us from the starting line to the glorious finish line...and he designed the teams and the teammates. He knew what each runner would need...not to finish first...but to finish well...
With a little help from our friends.
3 comments:
I loved the Jim Redmond story from the book. I can’t even imagine the emotion I would have felt to have been there to witness an event like that. I love that God gives us different kinds of friendships, to help run the race of life. But what I love most about friendship....is that He shows us more of His love through them.
I know I moan, wine, and complain sometimes on those hills....but I would run them all over again...with you my friend.
A friendship analogy from my life: A Garden. In my garden of friendships are the annuals, biennials and perennials. Annuals, short-lived but full of life. Biennials, give the appearance of hardiness but fade. Perennials, the tried and true backbone of the garden, supposedly live forever. Sometimes what you think should survive year after year doesn't, though you enjoyed it for a time. Biennials, though they should bear fruit, don't always. And then, every great once in a while, one of those annuals just hangs on and on and reappears again and again, re-seeding itself. You never know what you have in your garden until the seasons come and go. Some lose their leaves only to come back stronger next year. Sometimes, the plants you like the least, prove the truest and hardiest of them all. Time tells the story of a garden and friendship...
great post-- i agree- i think we tend to devalue our 5K /sprint friendships-- jim is always saying-- "why don't you talk to so and so as much?" and it's not that that friendship isn't important- it's different. great comparison to running- sprints are just as difficult as marathons- but you train differently- use different muscles- just like different friendships use/require different facets of yourself.
love ya jill!
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