Running The Race

This evening, I was training a client that wanted to run 3 miles in 27 minutes. He is able to do one of the miles in 9 minutes but he runs out of stamina to finish the other 2 miles in the allotted time. This evening, the same thing happened. I quizzed him about his lunch and found out that he had eaten french fries and chicken crispers for lunch. Those items have a whole bunch of fat and were probably still not even completely digested. I also noticed that as he was running, he was cutting his stride a little too short. After realizing he wasn't going to make the distance in 27 minutes, he wanted to bail, but I kept encouraging him to keep working, and he did! A lot goes into "running a race with endurance".
You need:
--the right food
--the right stride
--a desire to pursue even when things don't look so good
--an encourager

When "running the race with endurance" spiritually, we need the same things:
--the right food (the Word of God)
--the right stride (We do not want to "over stride"--we need to be using our God given gifts in such a way that we don't get too tired before the race is over ("burn out"). We do not want to "under stride"--not use the gifts that God has given us and come up short.)
--a desire to pursue even when things don't look so good. Our ultimate example--the Lord in the Garden and on the Cross.
--an encourager (the Holy Spirit, brothers and sisters in Christ, anyone and anything that the Lord desires to use--a song, a phone call, an e-mail, a blog, an act of kindness, an angel, a gift,a smile.)

Here's hoping your race is going well!