finishing strong

My kids were at our house for dinner recently.  After we'd eaten I was sitting on my front porch swing with Summer, Sid, Hannah and her boyfriend, Corey.  We were talking and laughing and playing with our big dog, Goose.  Summer was trying to get Goose to run with her so they could play but he wasn't having any part of it.  There were too many other things to capture his attention.  That's when I had the bright idea that if I ran he'd surely run and play with his mama.  So I took off.

I ran, and I'm using the term "run" loosely, to the end of my front walk.  He didn't follow.  Hannah started laughing and I thought she was laughing because Goose wasn't cooperating.  Nope.  She was laughing at my attempt to run!  I am not thin skinned and if I can do something to make my grandkids laugh, I'll do it until it's not funny anymore, so it absolutely didn't hurt my feelings.

Hannah kept laughing and told me I looked like I was speed walking, not running.  Hmm, a speed walking Gramma.  That IS pretty funny. I laughed at the visual too but I was laughing harder because I hadn't felt like I was speed walking, I felt like a gazelle!  When I told them how I'd felt, we all laughed!

Today as I walked around the lake at our nearby park, I wasn't nearly as tired as I had been in the beginning.  I am up to twice around the lake, nearly two miles, and yes, I'm pretty happy about it.  As I was completing my second lap and my car was in sight, I decided not to limp the last stretch but to run, to finish strongly.  Of course, as I started to run, I thought about looking like a speed walking Gramma and how funny I must have looked but I ran on...feeling like a gazelle...a Gazelle Gramma...and thinking about how the kids had laughed at me, I laughed, too!

As I got closer to the car I thought about the real race, this walk with Jesus, that I'm on.  More than anything in my life, I don't want to limp across the finish line.  I want to finish strongly!  On the outside, I may look like I'm speed walking Gramma, but in my heart, I'm a gazelle, sailing through the finish line into the arms of Jesus!    

"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing."  2 Timothy 4:7-8

Father, thank you for the race and for the strength to finish it.  I love you!

Suz