Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entagles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith…Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. — Hebrews 12:1-2a, 3
I recently have taken up running. And when I say recent, I mean that within the past week I have decided to run a half marathon. I’m not all that new to running as I ran track in high school though I sprinted which is extremely different then running for long distances. It’s this new sense of athletic self that brought along my epiphany for this post. If my relationship metaphor seems a little far fetched to you, I apologize. Treadmills in the early mornings can sometimes conjure up odd thoughts. Though, I ask you to stay with me until the end.
Sprinting: to run at full speed over a short distance.
Quite the contrast to a long distance run where you plan and train in order to have the endurance to finish strong. A sprinter only has one focus, the finish line.
Picture yourself as a sprinter.
You confidently approach your lane, take your mark, and hear the gun shot. In an instant you force the world to go away and your only thought is how quickly you can reach the end. The closer and closer you get to the finish line, the more you would rather collapse than finish. You begin to lose control of your body and finally, you’re there. You feel as though you ran around the world, and yet, you’ve run a mere 100 or 200 meters. It only takes seconds to give everything you have to end up nowhere.
How often do you approach your relationships like a sprint? Your only goal is to reach the finish line. Get married. Have kids. Begin the perfect life you’ve always fantasized about. Like the sprinter, do we become so focused on the end that we force the rest of the world to fade away? We begin to pour ourselves into a new relationship only finding that we lose our sense of self in the process. Most of the time, these “sprinting” relationships don’t make it all the way to the finish line. We find ourselves burnt out and burden heavy before we can cross and we start to blame ourselves for choosing the wrong person or not giving as much of ourself as we could have. These thoughts are you growing weary and losing heart. It’s hard to train for a long distance run when in our world we only see sprints.
I’m going to be honest with you. The Bachelor is my guilty pleasure. There is something so satisfying about watching 20+ women fight over one man that it’s hard not to watch. What I tend to forget is it’s these kind of reality dating shows and celebrity relationships that teach us what to do in a relationship. The people in these shows propose after only knowing each other for maybe six weeks. SIX WEEKS! It takes me longer than that to choose what I’m going to color my hair and hair color is in no way shape or form a lifetime commitment. Marriage is. At least the marriage that God set before us. “Til death do you part.” Death. That’s a real commitment.
So now you’re probably wondering “if I only know how to sprint how do I train to become a long distance runner?” You, my friend, just asked the million dollar question that to be honest, I am still trying to figure out myself.
We can all agree that marathons require preparation and planning. It’s much easier to go out and sprint a 100 meters than up and decide to go run a half marathon. You must be diligent in thinking about how you are going to get from the beginning to the end. The same can be said for a relationship. Relationships that are “going to go the distance” need to have the right preparation and planning to help them be successful. Sure, everyone needs some spontaneity to liven things up but it’s the set things you do each week that help you reach your training benchmarks. Do you try and attend church together every Sunday or are you praying together each week? Do you set aside time for a weekly date night or have “mini-dates” planned for the hectic weeks? Be diligent in your plans because it’s these moments that will help your relationship grow.
Just like runners train in pairs or groups they also train individually. So how should you be training, you ask? Know your self and know your schedule. Personally, I have a list of things I pray about for my future husband and take them to the gym with me. As I run, I pray for each thing and for our relationship. Maybe you spend more time in the car and instead of jamming out to the latest pop songs, you could devote that time to prayer time. There are also days where I am slammed with homework and force myself to go through one assignment to the next. Between assignments would be a great time to take a break and say a quick little prayer for my future hubby. Need some ideas of what to pray for? My friend shared this link with me a few weeks ago and it has really enhanced my prayer life.
Are you still with me? Good! I want to leave you with a final thought on why it is so important to train for your relationships. As stated in the above verse we are surrounded with a great cloud of witnesses. People that are watching and cheering us on as we fix our eyes on Jesus and run our relationship with strength and perseverance. Just think about what a great testimony you can be for others. If more people chose to prepare for their relationships, our world wouldn’t know what it was like to be a sprinter.
I challenge you to truly fix your eyes on Jesus as you train and prepare for your next race, you never know where your journey (and legs!) might take you.
In His love,
Sophia
