I don’t know about you but in our world of instant gratification {Hello Amazon Prime} I struggle with patience.

It doesn’t matter if it’s my health journey, business or life in general, I want results and I want them now! The problem is that’s not how results are achieved. They take time, effort and you guessed it, patience.

God has been working on my heart lately and at the core of it all is being patient in surrendering to his call on my life and being obedient no matter how much it hurts or doesn’t make sense. Coincidence that I had chose obedience as my 2017 buzzword? I think not and looking back to just 3 months ago I should have saw this coming!

I should have saw that running off with my goals even if they were good, godly goals was not my race.

I should have saw that even good things can be a distraction to my ultimate goal and purpose.

I should have saw that if I kept running full speed ahead with God right behind me instead of beside me was eventually going to cause burn out. Like my side hurts, I can’t breathe and my world is spinning after running for my life burn out.

But I didn’t see it. Or maybe I did but I just didn’t like what I was seeing because again, patience is not my strong suit. I know God gifted me the way he did for a reason, a specific purpose that was put into place 28 years ago and I want that now. I mean who wouldn’t want to be full out living for their purpose in the body of Christ?

The key here is living full out not in my way but his. So how does a dreamer and doer like myself go about that? Stopping the striving and just being still. Being still and “asking for him to show you the slow and steady way to live into your God-called purpose” as Rebekah Lyons so simply puts it.

Slow and steady. That’s painful for me to even type because that’s not my running style. Oh, you didn’t know I run? Truthfully I don’t very often and it’s not because I can’t but because I’m a terrible pace setter. I run too fast too quick just wanting it to be over with and to cross that prized finish line but as I’m sure you already know I rarely get there because just like in life right now, I burn out.

Thankfully though unlike my muscles and lungs that may forsake me in a physical run God never will. In fact he already knew this is the issue and one of the unique sins that would entangle my race in life. Which is why I’m shifting focus off the sprints and 5k’s in life aka my goals, to focus on training for my marathon which is the purpose he has for me.

“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.” Hebrews 12:1

The race marked out for me. Not what my mentor, best friend or neighbor down the street is doing. Not what the world says I should be doing to be successful and purposeful. But to run my race, slow and steady to win it for Jesus!

And in case you’re wondering, you too have a unique race to run. Ephesians 2:10 states this truth, “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

My prayer is that you’ll believe this truth. That you’ll seek him to find your race. Then you’ll run it at whatever pace he sets today, tomorrow and for eternity.

Ps – I’m totally cheesing in this picture because it was my first run in almost 4 years! My husband said, “I think you just need to run these emotions out” and he was right. 3 miles, 35 minutes and a podcast full of prayer later I felt amazing. Who knows maybe through this journey of being slow and steady I’ll end up a runner after all, anything is possible with God right?!