The race was on. People all around me were just as excited as I was. I felt good, I felt really good. Everyone was encouraging and running along right beside me.

I was strong. I was knocking the markers of my race down quickly. Nothing could stop me. I did notice however, that there wasn’t as many people around me as when I started.

The elation and excitement started to subside as I got deeper into the race. I started to get a little comfortable and settled in nicely. Once again however, the crowd thinned out a little more.

I started to feel a little pain that seemed like it was holding me back a little. It would come and go, but each time it came it would be a little more intense and hold me back a little more. I knew that I had to just trust that I could move past this pain.

The race started to get tough, but I was managing. Then I saw it. The hill. The biggest test yet. It seemed insurmountable. I started to wonder if I made the right decision. If this race was really worth it.

Once I made it over the hill, I felt much better and was able to look forward to what was next. There were a few people around me for the hill. They made it with me.

Suddenly, I noticed that I was alone. Not only was I alone, I was walking. I was still moving in the race, but it was at a snails pace. I felt awful. Felt like I let myself down.

Along the sides were people who had quit. They had enough and had given up. I looked at them and thought about joining them, but I didn’t see relief on their faces. Just exhaustion. Perhaps if people were around to just give them encouragement they wouldn’t have quit.

Every now and then I would start running again, but I have to be honest, I wanted to just be comfortable at this point. To just sit back and watch instead of persevering, but I kept putting one foot in front of the other.

Why?

Because there was something at the end waiting for me.

Then I realized that I wasn’t alone at all. There were people all around me going through the same thing I was going through. I just focused so much on my own pain, that I failed to see them. I pulled strength knowing that I wasn’t alone after all.

Then I turned a corner and saw it. I will never forget the feeling of seeing it.

The finish line.

I could barely move, beaten up from the race, but there was no stopping me. I was going to finish. People that had already finished were lined up, screaming for me to keep going. I was almost there.

With tears welling up in my eyes, it all became worth it. I crossed the finish line. I had run the race. The end was the best part.

I will tell you about my experience running a marathon another time, this was about living the Christian life.

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 have given up and are on the sidelines just watching, I pray that God’s love will surround you and you would know that you aren’t alone.

I know many of you know about my lunch buddy, Malique. I have plastered photos and quotes by him all over Twitter and Facebook. He’s a special kid who I have learned a lot from.

To be honest, when I first started having a lunch buddy I had the mindset of “I am going to do a good thing. I will help this kid. I will serve.” Now I think Malique is the one who signed up for the lunch buddy program.

I could see him walking up to the program director and saying, “I want to help. Give me a 27 year old man who is trying to learn to love and let him spend some time with me. I will whip him into shape.”

A few weeks ago I showed up at my normal time expecting to see Malique in line for lunch, he wasn’t there. I asked some of his classmates where he was and they told me that he got in trouble and was in the classroom. I walked down there and he came walking out and his face was upset. He began to explain to me that a boy in his class wouldn’t stop talking to him so they both got in trouble. (I suspect he wasn’t that innocent, but I used to do the same thing.)

A week later I asked him about getting in trouble and if the rest of the day went ok. He was picking up some kind of food with his fork and said: “Yeah, it went fine. You know, I just had to turn my day around.”

How many times do we let the small things effect the rest of our day?

Sometimes Malique doesn’t drink his milk. He just eats and then throws it away, but he always gets strawberry milk. So one week, I grabbed it and drank it. It was gross. I said, “Malique, how do you drink this stuff? This is nasty.” He said that he liked it and that was that.

Wednesday, we were sitting and talking and I noticed he had a chocolate milk. I assumed he got it because I told him strawberry milk was gross and he wanted to be like me. I asked him why he got Chocolate Milk instead of strawberry this time and what he said has opened my eyes this week.

He said, “I didn’t get it for me.”

He got it for me.

Keep teaching me Malique. Preach on brother.