One last lesson from the '08 KDF Marathon

When things fell apart around mile 18, I was done. My legs were shredded, my will power was fading, and I wasn't sure I was going to complete the race.

I decided to ask God for a little help. No nothing like fresh legs or instant relief, I figured he had more pressing issues. I just asked him to run the last 8.2 miles with me and when given the opportunity I'd make sure folks knew I didn't do it on my own.

The silliness is that God has been walking with me daily since I accepted Christ as my Savior as a child. He's led me down some blessed roads and he's tagged along when I've taken walks I shouldn't have, never leaving me. I know this, but there I stood asking him to finish the race with me, as though he hadn't already logged every mile with me.

It has taken me some time to write this post because I just couldn't seem to string the words together to say what I wanted to say, then somewhere between New Orleans and Atlanta, somewhere around thirty three thousand feet, I remembered another time that God pulled me through.

The marathon was the second time my own physical abilities and self motivation weren't enough to see me through the task at hand. The other occurred almost exactly three years earlier.

With twins on the way, we sold our house, bought an old rental property who's mortgage payment would allow my wife to stay at home, and I began to gut it for a two month remodel. At around 11 pm, April 12th, 2005, my cell phone rang as I was working to tear out the old kitchen cabinets. My wife called from her mom's, where we were living during the remodel, to tell me her water had broke. Wait a second, I thought I had another month and a half. The twins arrived early and my two month time frame became two weeks. I had to have some place to bring the boys home to, and my mother-in-laws small house was already over burdened (space wise) with the addition of Jina, myself and our oldest.

I called work and informed them I would not be returning for at least two weeks and fully understood if they needed to suspend my salary (I was working under contract to a client), they didn't. I began putting in 20 hour days, bouncing between two hospitals and the remodel, yet I can't remember fatigue ever being an issue despite nearly two weeks at this pace. My friends stepped up and put their skills to work. My friend and his wife delivered a professional grade paint job in a couple of rooms, and that isn't his profession, he's a pastor. Another friend put his "jack of all trades" skills to work to help me complete the kitchen, insisting on laying the new kitchen floor himself for fear that I might screw it up. My family stepped up to help with other tasks and with helping get Jina back and forth to the hospitals for visits. More blessings than I deserved or deserve.

You see, I can nail a nail, cut a board (just don't expect it to be straight), and in general work my way through many projects, but to remodel that home in two weeks took more than my skills, more energy and drive than my internal motivators could generate, and even more than the skills and talents of my friends. It took God's help, because there is honestly no explanation or rationalization for how the house got gutted and renovated in such a short time. I've done the calculations, replayed the whole thing in my head, and know my own skill levels. It shouldn't have come together like it did, but then again, Jesus was a carpenter.

So there I was three years later, standing on the side of the road, asking God to help me see this thing through to the finish. I was physically spent, emotionally drained, and any pride I had left perished with the cramps that threatened to wreck my quads. Guess who was there with me. You knew I finished the race, but now you know the rest of the story.

Psalm 38 (New International Version)

...8 I am feeble and utterly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart...10 My heart pounds, my strength fails me; even the light has gone from my eyes... 15 I wait for you, O LORD; you will answer, O Lord my God...17 For I am about to fall, and my pain is ever with me...21 O LORD, do not forsake me; be not far from me, O my God. 22 Come quickly to help me, O Lord my Savior.