Compete and Complete

Yesterday I competed and completed an Olympic marathon with five of my friends and another seven friends that came for support and coaching. I had no idea when I started this process about nine months ago how intense the process would be. It was at challenge learning how to swim and bike and run in such a way as to do them back to back to back. It was challenging to watch friends have to back out because life demands were too much to prepare sufficiently. It was exciting to see the support and care from family and friends.

In the end it was a real joy to compete and complete. It was different for me because the competition was not really me against another person. One of my coaches just kept telling me don't pay attention to everyone passing me focus instead on my own pace and what I needed to do to complete the race. Wise words that probably saved my life in the water, but also allowed me to finish the race.

This week I am preparing a message on discipleship, how fitting given the process I just under took. If I attacked this race the same what I go after everything else competitively in my life I never would have finished. I had to admit to myself my weaknesses and live with them. I had to accept the 55 year old woman passing me on the run up the hill that I was walking (one day I will catch you lady).

Our lives as Christians is the same kind of journey. We want to be super strong and powerful, but in the end there is always someone passing us, more mature than us, but in the end we all strive to be like the one who achieved the prize perfectly.