How To Run A Luggage-Free Race

I like to go for walks at the park in my town that has a lake. I walk on the road that winds around the front of the park til it winds back to the main entrance. I park my car and then walk the whole rode.

There are trails that go all the way around the lake, but that is a little too ambitious for me at this point. Since I injured a nerve in my hip, my left leg is not able to withstand long walks, so short walks it is!

Many of the locals, however, do take the long trail around the lake. I see them all the time. God bless ’em! They pass me sweating, but breathing as if they were merely walking. Sometimes I see them in groups, other times it’s a couple running side by side, and sometimes it is only one person running.

English: A ultramarathoner running the 32 Mile Wyoming Ultramarathon in the Bighorn Mountains (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It’s wonderful to share this time of exercise with someone else when you can. You can push each other and cheer the other on.

What happens when the other person you are running with decides to go in a different direction than where you want to go? Eventually, you are going to have to part ways.

Dating is kind of like looking for a running partner. You want to find someone who will run the race of life with you, the race that God has placed before you.

If your running a race, not just any partner will do. You want someone who will be able to keep up the pace with you. You want someone who will not be a weight hanging on you and holding you back from the goal.

There’s been a few times where I made the mistake of choosing the wrong partner. What happened? I either slowed down hoping my partner would catch up or I turned off the path completely because the direction my partner was going pointed in the opposite direction. Either way it kept me from reaching the goal.

I met a man who I thought was everything I wanted except he wasn’t a Christian. Then I met another man who I thought was a Christian only to find out we had some very vast and different ideas of who Jesus was.

Here is what I learned: Run the race and if a man catches up with you and stays with you then he will make a great partner. If a man will not catch up with you, then don’t slow down for him. If a man tries to steer you in a different direction, then leave him in the dust! That’s right! Let him taste the dust from your racing feet! No man is worth leaving the race. When we have Jesus as our prize, why would you?

In the book of Hebrews we read this,

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. (Hebrews 12:1)

If you ever find a weight holding you back from the work God has for you, strip it off. If there is a weight dragging you down, making it difficult to move into the promises of God, strip it off. This is how you run a luggage-free race. Let go of the luggage!

Ever tried running a race with luggage strapped to you? If you’ve ever tried running through an airport to get to your gate, you know how difficult that is!! There’s a whole lot of huffing and puffing, and very little movement toward your destination!

My message to my brothers and sisters in Christ who are looking for running partners is this: choose your running partners wisely. If your partner turns out to be a weight that is dragging you down, holding you back, or steering you to a different race, strip it off. Make a commitment to yourself before God that you will run alone until the right person catches up with you and is able to keep the pace because the prize at the end of the race is too valuable to lose.