Dizzy or Cold?

93 is the number of laps around the Community Center indoor running track to make up 6.2 miles. That was yesterday. Today was 3.5 miles outdoors in the 2° snowiness. These will be the options on many days during the run up to Fargo. Each has its own challenges and each its own joys. For example, there is no feeling quite like taking your hat off at the end of a run and seeing the steam rise off of your head. At the same time, it is not easy running on the side of the road when the shoulders are covered in a couple of inches of snow. Yet whether outdoors or indoors, running is rather simple--right, left, right, left, ...

One phrase from my favorite backpacking trip video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PK5pdxhlSpk) is "Just do the next right thing--over and over again." A great motto for living and an apt description of this early stage of training. Just do the next right thing--get out and run--over and over again--regardless of wind, snow, or cold. Figuring out the next right thing is simple. Doing the next right thing is where the challenge lies.

I think that the same is true about following Jesus. Figuring out what to do next is not too difficult--live out the Beatitudes, love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength. It is the doing that gets difficult. Yet it is only in the doing that we make progress. Toward what? Toward Christlikeness--becoming more and more like Jesus in thoughts, words, priorities, and deeds. That is the only race that is worth running here on earth. And the only way to run that race is to do the next right thing--over and over again.

Pressing On.