We all have a desire to be healthy, strong, vibrant and full of life and here most recently I had an experience that brought a fresh perspective my way that I see parallels the way Holy Spirit works through us and brings us alive.
Just last week I took part for the third time in a run with a long name and an even longer course, the Massanutten Mountain Trails 100. The MMT100 is known as the hardest 100 mile trail race East of the Rockies and for reasons that include; the elevation gain which is somewhere around 17,000 ft and is enough uphill to get you from the base of Mount Mckinley to the summit, the second factor that makes this course so tough is the nature of the trails which is consist jagged rocks next to jagged rocks and best described as ankle breaking, foot pounding, knee bending, bone breaking and flesh eating.
My biggest fear before one of these races is not that I might have a poor showing, it's not that I might break something, nor is it a fear for all the suffering an exhaustion that I am about to subject myself to, it's that I might miss my alarm clock, oversleep and not be at the start. So I woke up at 3:50 AM at the sound of the door closing across the hall from my hotel room ten minutes prior to my alarm going off. I was able to get a descent night of sleep, about 5 hours, and it was nice that my internal alarm clock was working as back to the two alarms that I had set. Not sure it was a breakfast of champions but a banana and a Snickers provide a little bit of energy for the tank to get me going. I then added a hot cup of pre-race coffee provided at the start which rounded out my last ounce of preperation for the race at hand. At this point you would think the pressure would be mounting to get out and push the limit and finish well but really I felt a lot of relief and satisfaction that I made it to the start especially after months of preparing, 100's of miles of training, no injuries, after just having built and moved into a new house, after doing my best to help raise 5 young children, with my wife (who deserves much more credit for her endurance and perseverance than me) holding healthy and strong at 38 weeks pregnant.
I wont' bore you with all the minute details of the run, to be honest I usually forget most of them anyway, but know that there was sweeting, falling, one minor blister, black and blue toe nails, beautiful views, friendly runners (Todd, Mark, Aaron, Phil, Kieth, Neil) and aid station volunteers, people puking, running in the heat, running in the dark, whippoorwills singing, smooth running and some rough going. There was one moment that I do want go into detail about and was quite memorable for me and it happened around 39 miles into the race. Now 39 miles in a 100 mile race is only a little over a third of the way to finish miles wise and a quarter of the way time wise so it is certainly no time to be celebrating a good finish. Well celebrating I was, not a finish but some sort of high that can hardly be explained. I am not sure what spurred this moment of glory on, was it the fact that I was running smooth and my legs were still feeling fairly fresh, was it a little praise and worship time that I was having with me my ipod and God's creation, was it the 2x caffeine Espresso Love GU that I downed earlier or was it what runners refer to as "runners high". Whatever it was at that point I knew I had it in me to accomplish what I had set out to do which was to finish another 100 mile race, to redeem myself from last years DNF, to go out and have fun and to push the limits of my endurance abilities.
I was Alive and Well and this new found energy was so much like what the Holy Spirit does and can do in anybodies life no matter what they are doing or where they are at. I like John Piper's four effects of the Holy Spirit 1) The Holy Spirit Gives New Live 2)The Holy Spirit makes us not just life-getters but life-givers 3) The Holy Spirit witnesses to Jesus 4)The Holy Spirit glorifies Jesus.
As I look back at what gave me a vibrant strength that brought me to the finish line on Sunday morning at 3:30 AM, 22 hour and 30 minutes after we started and 5th place OA, I realize that it is not just the training, the support, what you eat, what you drink but it is also includes somethings that are completely necessary that you just can't put your hands on or totally understand.
