I tend to be a glutton.  If there is, and I’m not entirely sure, a way to be a glutton in a good way, that’s me. I’m a glutton for punishment. Explains a lot to those who knew me as a child. A whole lot.

I have changed my ways as I’ve aged but apparently not that much. I’m still a glutton for punishment because today I ran 3.6 miles. That isn’t a lot of miles, unless you consider 3 weeks ago I had not been running in a few months. Last Saturday I ran 4.2 but it took me a couple of runs to make it. Today though was all in one shot.

The first half of my route (an easy out and back) was all up hill. Not only did I run uphill, I ran right into the wind. The whole. way. up.  After awhile even telling myself, “Running downhill with the wind is the reward of running uphill against the wind” didn’t really work.

I don’t about where you live, but here on the plains when the wind blows it knocks you over. You literally run 3 steps and are blown back 30. We don’t believe in gentle breezes. We believe in hurricane winds. Only we don’t have hurricanes, the lack of ocean water sees to that for us. Tornadoes..yes we have. So imagine a tornado that isn’t going in circles and that is a gentle breeze on the plains.

I will never forget the first summer we lived in St. Louis. I walked with a couple of ladies and one morning before our walk I turned on the tv to hear the temperature. I about fell over when the weatherman in all honesty said, “Better hang on to your hats today, folks, it’s going to be a windy day. Wind gusts to 10mph.”

That’s right. 10 mph. Where I’m from, we don’t even notice wind until it’s about 30mph.

Back to running up hill against the wind. I wanted to keep my eyes on stop sign at the top of the hill. When I got there I could take a breather and it meant I was half done.  The wind though kept my eyes not on the finish line, but on my feet.  I could breathe and run if my eyes were focused on my running feet. Raise them to look at the finish line and I would be forced to stop just so I could get a breath.

Hebrews 12:2 ran through my head, “Fixing our eyes on Jesus….”. He is the ultimate finish line.  He is our prize. When we reach Him, we aren’t half done, we are finished. We win the prize because we ran our race with endurance. (Hebrews 12:1)

I also thought of the verse in Psalm 119, “Your Word in a lamp to my feet.” In John 1 we learn that Jesus is the Word. He is not only where our eyes should be, He is what our feet should be running toward. He is the light for our path.

The very same God who said, “Fix your eyes on Me” also said, “I am the light for your feet.”

So when the storms of life blow in your face, when they are strong and you feel you can’t breathe, bow your head and focus on the Light at your feet.  It helped me.