Going to church today, I bumped into the marathon. A 26+ mile run for fun? In the rain?As those who read my blog know I live on the Mississippi river within a 4 city metropolis called the Quad cities, with 2 cities either side of the river. This is the runningest  place I have ever lived in, or maybe because of the size and layout of the land here, I see them more. This particular marathon hits all 4 cities. It takes major amounts of commitment, courage, perseverance and love of running. Some run for a cause, some for themselves to beat the last run time and some just run for the fun and enjoyment or it, regardless of the weather. I don’t get it but I admire it.

I realize these picture are not clear, I was driving at the time, but that folds into what my true purpose of this post is about.

Runners train endless hours to be able to preform the endurance that is required for any given race. They train their bodies to withstand the pressure they may encounter, they revise their diets to help strengthen their endurance and they gear their minds into the proper mindset to be able to finish the race. Sometimes it not about a clear manor in  running but that clearly you finish.

For me, walking .2 miles can be a challenge on some days depending on what the weather is doing to my arthritic knees. But I admire the training of the runner and this morning I thought of a different thought pattern for running a race, which includes all the training mentioned above in different forms.

What if we turned our life into a race of…Running TO Jesus. What if we put a marathon’s  passion of running to run toward the one who loves us more than we can imagine. I look at it as a child being lost and then being found like the prodigal some spoken of in scripture. The father running with love toward the some. Our heavenly father is forever running to us, and if we will just turn toward Him…of course it is easier to say than to do.

Or for animal loves, tears come to my eyes as soldiers are reunited with their canine loves upon their return from service. They RUN to each other with love overflowing.

That really is what God wants from us…to run to Him with His overflowing love for us. Scripture talks about running the race of life and to run it with Christ as our goal, while in fact He is running beside us to make sure we finish with Him.

So when you see runners cheer them own and remember to run your own race to God. He never said it would be easy but it did say it would be worth it.

And while you are running, remember to reflect the love he is showing you and share it with for other to see His love.