Just need someone to believe...

This morning as I finished up my workout I glanced at the cover of the May 2011 Runner's World Magazine and the title "BOSTON FEVER: Why Everyone Wants In" caught my eye...

It got me to thinking...

I need to subscribe to this magazine. {Wait, that's not the point.}

I just want to run a marathon someday, I don't desire to qualify for Boston. Also, I doubt I could. Oh, and I'm really not sure when "someday" is.

Then I took myself back about ten years. A time when running a mile seemed daunting. When working out was only for athletes.

And, I have never been an athlete. I have always been awkward in sports. I was that girl. You know. The one who was always picked last in PE. {I hated new units in PE for that very reason. The athletic two that get picked as team captain, and then the rest of the class lines up on the blue line. Captains pick. First, most-athletic-kid. And then most-athletic-kid whispers in the ear of captain "pick so-and-so". And then it happens. There are two people left standing on the blue line. And then the awkward, "I guess I'll pick her". Gee... I'm flattered. No, really. And, oh by the way, I'm all grown up now and I could beat you in a race *wink*}

I remember in sixth grade, I really wanted to try out for Cross Country. Running. Even then, I knew that I needed to lose weight (I went to a relatively small school. Kids were mean. Maybe they were mean if you went to a big school, too. I wouldn't know.) and I knew running was a good way to do that! I remember asking the coach how often practices were. And I remember that look. The one that said "you could never run cross country".

Fast forward to college.

Suddenly I was meeting friends who *gasp* worked out - for fun. "Hey, Mary. Do you want to go to the rec today?"

"What is 'the rec'? Oh, the gym. No, thanks, I don't play sports."

But then, the freshman fifteen hit, times two.

Suddenly this working out thing caught on. And, I had people who believed in me. That worked out with me. That pushed me forward. And, I set a goal to run a 5K {without stopping to walk}. About three years later, I finally did it. Because someone believed in me. I just needed someone to believe in me. My husband was with me, every step of that race, and when I felt like I couldn't breath, he believed in me.

Because he believed in me, I ran a 20K a year later. And then, I ran another 20K. And I completed a half-marathon. Because he believed in me, he pushed me out the door when I didn't feel like doing the long run on the weekend. I become doubtful and I become lazy. But he believes in me.

Don't we all just need someone to believe in us?

God did. He knew that we just needed someone to believe in us, because we are undeserving and broken sinners. We don't feel worthy. We are doubtful. We get lazy. We don't believe that we can run the race set before us. We don't believe that we are worthy. But, we have been reconciled to God through his son. Jesus wasn't the embarrassed kid in PE. He was the only son of God, humiliated, beaten, betrayed and crucified to give us hope, to cleanse our sins and to push us to the finish line when we don't believe we can finish the race.

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 entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  - Hebrews 12:1-2