It’s Sunday. FOUR days into the new year. The math of my goal to walk 500 miles (and then to walk/ run 500 more) says I need to cover 2.74 miles a day. I’m doing this to remember and advocate for the 3.4 million who die each year because their water isn’t safe or available to them. (imagine the the city of LA being wiped off the planet each -469 square miles full of beautiful and wonderful people).
Since I live by a lake with a 3 mile trail it makes it easy when I am home.
Today was extra exciting and I felt like I should get a medal or something shiny or an oatmeal cream pie because the total equaled 13.1.
A half-marathon.
I. AM. THE. BOSS.
But then I’m not at all. I’m not even the boss of our pet worm and chickens. What was I thinking? The realization is sinking in. I’m heading over to Central America today, you know, for 15 DAYYYYSS.
How and where am I going walk or run? When? My schedule is full morning until night (strangely early there, around 5:30PM). What was I thinking? I’ve got a heckuva lot of miles to cover and no rainforest plan. Sweet mother, why?
I need a pep talk. And since no one in my house is awake to give me one. Probably because they’re all sleeping off their night full of sleep walking, going to the bathroom, coming into to my room and into my bed, talking in their sleep, and grinding their teeth.
Brooklyn, don’t lose it. (Insert your name if you need a pep talk today).
You just ran 13.1 miles (sort of). It doesn’t matter how you pushed through. It matters that you didn’t give up. You’ve got 41.1 miles to cover in a country not your own on terrain that you’ve never seen or felt or smelt before. But don’t let this move you. Keep the 13.1 mindset. One day, one step at a time.
You know that no one never got anywhere staring up the stairs. The one’s at the top did it one step at at time.
You’re going to do great. Just as the apostle Paul begged his boy church planter Titus, beg yourself to see the work of godliness in you, the earnestness that has been produced in you, the alarm, the longing, the concern, the readiness to see justice done. (2 Cor. 2:10-11)
You can count on God to change your heart every day. Through…every step, every frustration, every departure from the truth. You can count on God to bring the joy and bring it BIG. You can count on to give us hearts for the Gospel. Our hearts for the Gospel can’t come from anywhere else.
Pray for your heart to soar into action. Pray for the peace to do what’s needed today. Pray for the creativity to explore the heart of God in ways that change the world. Pray for others to feel this ability. Pray for yourself and others to be OK in the parts of our faith that make us confident and also the parts that make us squirm in discomfort.
You can’t walk 500 miles today. But you can walk 2.74. Every day will give you options.
You keep moving. Because all of you for today is all that’s required.
The half marathon mindset is a way of living at a steady pace. If you’re choosing a break-neck speed then sorry, you’ll probably break your neck and a bunch of other stuff that’s important and needed in your life. If you’re going too slow you may never get the momentum you need to create, to begin, to go after, to join, to work, to be excellent, to be passionate, to be about experiencing the exhilarating high of finishing.
Let’s keep moving. Deal?
In the mean time, I’ve got a plane to catch. I’ll be blogging from the pure life—on the rich coast for the next two weeks. Maybe my posts will be pure and rich too. I hope so. See you soon San Jose.
