Thanks for reading the Run & Not Grow Weary blog series.
Please share if you like it. Welcome to Day 5!

Running is hard.

When I started running it never felt good. Honestly, I wondered how and why people did this. I just wasn’t “used too” it; the burning lungs, aching muscles, clickety-clacking of my bones rattling with the unsettling impact of running. Every run was a test of my mental will. I figured if I kept at it, my body would do what it was made to do: adapt. Sometimes I truly believed it would never get easier.

Guess what? It did.

The hard is what makes it great.

We naturally prefer the easy and comfortable. We put a lot of time and money into protecting ourselves from hard situations or struggles. But some struggle, some challenge is good. To paraphrase an old English Proverb, “A calm sea never made a skillful sailor”.

As a coach, if I see someone who isn’t breathing hard after a sprint interval or sweating after a workout, I know they’re not trying. No one improves by doing only what comes easy or by putting in zero effort.

Struggling means growth is possible.

God is working in us. He wants to grow and strengthen us because He intended for us to do GREAT things in His name. But in order to do that, He’s got to make us sweat by allowing us to go through things in life that are not easy. And we’ve got to put in the effort to act in faith through those things.

My body eventually adapted to running faster. My lungs grew stronger, my muscles leaner. Same thing happens with our faith and personal growth. As we struggle through tests and trials of many kinds, we adapt; our endurance grows and our faith is strengthened. That is how God made us.

My encouragement to you is this:
If you’re feeling down because something (like running) is hard, ask God to change your perspective. Ask Him to help you see embrace the challenges that will grow and strengthen you.

And if running is now “easy” for you, then I challenge you to go run hard today. Don’t injure yourself! Just run fast enough to feel the struggle for a bit. It can be as simple as ending your run with a 30 second sprint.

Then remember that this is what growth is about. Not avoiding the hard things, but seeing them as part of the journey toward the great things.

Thanks for reading!

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