During my marathon-training days, I became part of a training group that would go on runs twice a week. It was enjoyable because those in the group became very good friends, and encouraged one another to do their best.
The head trainer was a woman named Stacy who went out of her way to make things as difficult as possible!
Of course she did this because hard training runs made us stronger for the upcoming race. She was known to include a huge amount of hills in our training runs telling us “the hills make you stronger”! She also would add a little bit of extra distance to our milage (we lovingly called it a “Stacy Mile”) so there would be energy at the end of our race.
Most of the time I could endure Stacey’s torture……
except when there were hill repeats
A hill repeat is when you sprint up a hill, then jog down, and sprint up multiple times. As you can imagine the first few times this isn’t too hard. But when you’re doing it ten times that becomes incredibly difficult. There was one very big hill in particular that she always planned for a certain training program, but she wouldn’t tell them when. If she did, they wouldn’t come!
On those days I truly hated the hills
but I must admit that they made me stronger.
The Christian life is filled with hills so to speak. Challenges that test our ability to serve the Lord. It’s easy to become discouraged by them and simply give up. But just like physical hills build strength, spiritual hills build endurance.
I was thinking about that last week while trudging up some hills of Barrouallie. They don’t usually bother me but after spending time focused on a mental challenge (teaching) it’s tough switching back to a physical one of those hills. Thankfully God gives grace in my moments of weakness đŸ™‚ But I also plod along because every one of those hills builds not just strength, but endurance.
On race day I was always thankful for the extra Stacy had for us (yes even the hill repeats)
And in the future I’ll praise God for the hills that draw me closer to becoming the man He wants me to be.
Johnhwilburn.org 