100 Everyday Cathedrals: Day 59 – Fear
August 17, 2016
100 Everyday Cathedrals Day 61 – Acts of Kindness
September 10, 2016
It’s easy to get discouraged when you focus on how far you have to go, that you forget to look back and see how far you’ve already come.
I don’t normally run in hilly areas. In fact my runs are usually on long flat roads. This past week while I was in Tennessee the stretch of road I ran on was anything but flat. I’m not sure how well you can see from the picture but that’s a long hill with a 45 degree incline. Its not the only hill on this run either. There are a total of five inclines and most are steeper than 45 degrees. Before you think I’m trying to make myself seem like I’m a world class runner the likes of Usain Bolt, I’m not. The entire run is only three miles.
The hill in this picture is the longest of the hills. It’s one of those slow, painful hills where you just focus on taking one step at a time telling yourself, “You are one step closer to the top”. The worst part of this hill was right when I thought I had reached the top there was still another 75 feet of hill. Don’t you hate it when you think you reached the summit but the real summit is still a little bit further?
The morning I took this picture, as I was running up this hill it struck me that I was so focused on how far I still had to go that I ignored how much of the hill I’d already run. Isn’t that how life is? It’s so easy to focus on how far we are from where we want our life to be that we forgot how far we’ve already gone.
Three years ago my life got turned upside down. At the time my future seemed like a giant mountain to climb. I can’t say I’ve reached the summit of where I am going, but I can feel good about how far I’ve already come.
As you journey on the upward climb towards the life of you dreams, I invite you to look back and reflect on how far you’ve come. Looking back will give you the courage and resolve to keep moving forward when you feel like you’re losing traction. Be faithful to your path and you will reap great rewards.
‘Well done…you have been faithful in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ (Matthew 25v23)
