I ran a marathon yesterday. I have had a few ask me…. How do you feel? My answer is: good, tired, thankful. This was my 8th marathon which is fun enough and I’m thankful for being able to do it. I’m slower than before and I have never been fast to begin with, but that was never the big goal for me. It was to run my race and finish well. This one was special. As most of you know it has been a little over a year since seeing Maezie, my daughter who was 13 at the time, get hit by a car, while training for a half-marathon. Not a bump, but a full on, total the car, kinda hit. I saw the whole thing. God did a miracle. He did a lot of miracles. Our family and friends came together and our God did what only He could do, and we all can testify. I was thankful, but I also had residual effects of fear and trauma. I tried everything I knew to get it out of me but it would take very little, sometimes just a thought, a sound, an emergency light, to trigger a reaction. My body kept the score and my brain made sure the score was kept high.
So yesterday, God, through many long miles and months redeemed it, as He does. Maezie and I ran a full marathon, Charsie and Cellie and Divine ran a half marathon. It feels like I ran some of my fears right into the ground and God not only got us through it, but with JOY!
We had a large support crew that ran their own race getting to us all, cheering like crazy, and keeping track of the runners and giving us what we needed along the way. None of us ran together so it was tracking five different runners. And keeping track of all the girl gang support crew that no doubt have needs of their own.
I had all my girls there, plus my niece, Ashton, and the girl gang of grands except for the youngest grand girl.
My nephew, Jordan came and joined in like he knew the plan the whole time. He didn’t know the plan, because we never really told him and he showed up anyway.He didn’t miss a beat.
Charlie did what he does. Dad, Grampy, Husband. Took it on like a boss and a job to be completed with excellence.
Lashae was a full-on first born and kept everyone in line and Esther showed up, looking and acting like a star.
Maubry, my oldest grand, ran the last 6 miles with me. What a special gift.
I could go on and I will a little, Robbie ran in cowboy boots to encourage the last little bit, Maddie stood in the rain and cheered with her sweet smile and her umbrella that every girl gang member tried to fit under, and Kyle stood on the corner, videoed each runner in our group and gave me water and ran alongside me with a prayer to get me to the finish.
Everyone played a part and ran their own type of race, while supporting one another. It was a day, a weekend, to remember. We went to church together the night before, and the message was believing God to do the impossible.One of the lines was we can move in a fear mindset that say: “What if” what if this or that or everything in between goes wrong, or we can believe God, have faith and say: “Even if”, even if the worst or best (in our minds) happens we know God is good and He is with us. Many things can go wrong every single day, and when you send runners out to run their race, extra risk and challenges and hard things can happen, but EVEN IF it does, God is good and God is faithful and He brought us together and gave us extra grace and strength and joy that went far beyond any run or race.
Yesterday was a win! A joy! An honor! We are ALL tired and sore and thankful.
James 1:2-4 Consider it a great joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you experience various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing.
