This week our practice locations are a little different. Monday at 5:15pm will be at Lake Pine instead (1808 Lake Pine Dr, Cary, NC 27511). Thursday at 5:15pm will be at Jobie Ruhl’s house (174 R Family Rd New Hill, NC 27562). These will be long runs, 4 miles continuous for one group and 6 miles continuous for the other. Saturday at Sugg will be more intensive.

Those of us going to Guatemala next week to serve Agua Viva Children’s Home have an interesting challenge on our hands. We leave for a week and likely can’t run and the return to our first meet just a few days later. Here’s what I recommend: run every day Monday through Friday this week–at least 3 miles, more if you have time and energy. If you’re doing the 6-mile runs on Monday and Thursday, you’ll finish the week around 18-20 miles. For some of you, that’s a big jump in mileage, not for others. The basic goal is to over-train this week and then allow yourself the extra time to recover next week.

God as Creator? What about that? Running cross country is an interesting way to experience God our Creator. First is that we’re running! We are souls in bodies that are able to run. And that’s amazing. It is an engineering marvel at so many level.

Second we’re running in God’s creation. The trees and paths and hills and sky (and yes, scorching sun!) are all part of the wonder of God’s creation. When you’re not gasping for breath and trying to keep your lungs in your chest, it’s good just to appreciate his handiwork all around us.

But third is the glory of Christian competition. Running against other people is an excellent way to push yourself, develop in ways you didn’t think you could, and know what it means to go hard after a goal. And like in all such endeavors, sometimes you reach your goal and sometimes you don’t. But the striving is a glory in itself–as long as it’s a good goal that you pursue for his glory.

In a very broad sense, this is connected to God’s mandate to humanity at the Creation:

“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth” (Gen 1:28).

With this mandate, our goal is not to be at the top and make sure all others are beneath us, but it’s to work hard within the creation to develop as people for the tasks he’s given us. Cross country is one small way we do that. We work hard now so that we can glorify him more as Christian men and women.

See you tonight!

Daniel