What do you really value in life? What’s most important?<\/p>\n
Sunday, I ran the Carlsbad 1\/2 Marathon. It’s the 12th time I’ve done the race and my first 1\/2 in four years. What made this year’s race different is, I have an injured hamstring muscle. So, my plan was to run “gently,” not race or push, but just enjoy myself. I finished just 9 minutes slower than my personal best. I was amazed at how well the race went! I felt a great accomplishment in running so well with my injury and having a good time. <\/p>\n
This week, I’ve been living in the afterglow of the race. I’m grateful for the accomplishment. I still feel good, but the afterglow is fading with each passing day. <\/p>\n
What do I value? I must confess that I place value in accomplishments. It feels good to achieve something that I’ve worked hard to attain. May I confess that it also helps to build my ego?<\/p>\n
Though I’m grateful for a good race, I have to remember that it wasn’t me that allowed me to race and do well. The blessing comes from God. It was through Christ in me that I found the strength to run and, run without making the injury worse.<\/p>\n
Paul writes in Philippians 4:12-13, “I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”<\/p>\n
I’m still learning that my greatest value needs to be Christ. It is through him that I can find ultimate contentment, satisfaction, and gratitude for the blessings in life.<\/p>\n
Can you relate?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What do you really value in life? What’s most important? Sunday, I ran the Carlsbad 1\/2 Marathon. It’s the 12th time I’ve done the race and my first 1\/2 in four years. What made this year’s race different is, I have an injured hamstring muscle. So, my plan was to run “gently,” not race or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-spiritual-formation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=299"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":300,"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299\/revisions\/300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emergentbrethren.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}