Marathon

They say life is a race.

Sometimes life feels like a sprint.  Or better yet, a relay.  Running as fast as you can so you can meet the deadline to hand-off for the next sprint.

Then sometimes life feels like a marathon.

Exhaustion sits in.  You can't stop.  You are stuck in the race.  You can only keep plodding along.

Sometimes people will come along side you and hand you a cup of water, or better yet Gatorade, to help keep you moving slowly forward.  I have a couple people who are that.  They run beside me every step of the way.

Then sometimes there are those who shove you from behind.

Good intentions, of course.

They are only trying to push you closer to the finish line.  Push you towards your goal.

But sometimes those shove from behinds aren't what you need.

They don't realize:

your feet are weighted down from lack of sleep.

your legs are numb from working too many hours.

your side aches from the responsibility of raising kids alone.
(one with raging hormones)

your head is pounding with each step you take from the aggravation that you aren't moving along faster.

They don't realize that a shove from behind will only make you fall flat on your face.
***

I hate to admit, that I stopped writing at this point to Google 'people falling down while running'.

I wanted to post something funny, to make me laugh through this, even though I'm kinda struggling with it.  That's what I do when I'm fighting life.  I find something to laugh at.

I went to YouTube and typed in 'people falling down while running'.

Yea.  I'm that shallow.

But even God can speak to us when we are shallow.

This video is what came up first.  Please watch it.  All of it.

It wasn't laughter I found while watching.

It was tears.

Streaming down my face.

Exactly what I needed tonight.

I might have fallen down.

But only for a moment.

I'll pick myself up.

Run harder.

Even though each fall hurts.  Even though each disappointment feels like a setback.  I'm not going to give up.  I have my goals and no matter what happens, even if I fall, I'll keep picking myself back up and keep on running.

(Seriously, how awesome is the song that is played through this?  Not.at.all. what I expected to find when I opened this video for the first time!)