We Must Have Patience Even When We Don’t Understand

One of the first things I learned as a runner is patience. When I was training for my 5K I had to follow a daily plan to get conditioned so I could run longer distances. I actually started walking, then walking and running for a certain amount of minutes and finally at the end I had trained my body to run the full 3.1 miles.

But it all took patience to train slowly and trust that if I followed the schedule I would get to the end goal, my son Tyler’s 5K Memorial walk/run.

Sounds super easy when you read this; right! In real life not so much. Along the way I learned lots of patience and trust. Like when you have sore muscles, you are tired, and the many aches and pains that come along with training. That is where patience comes in to play. You have to learn to breathe and conquer each obstacle one at a time. So I look at it this way; pain is part of the process. Without the pain whatever kind it is, one would not finish the process or the journey.

I remember a time that was even harder than training for my 5K. It was when my Grandma was dying. My mom was granting my grandma’s wish of taking care of her vs. putting her in a care home. I was married, had three kids, lived three hours away and was trying to help my mom any way I could in the last few days with my grandma. In the beginning she was doing really well, almost as if they gave her the wrong diagnosis. She was happy, strong, and her physical appearance looked normal. It was during this time that we had to learn patience as we waited for her to get worse.

How does a person wait and be patient for that?

All I know is that is where God comes in…the TRUST. We have to trust in his plan. I remember thinking as my grandma progressively got worse, she lost weight, her skin changed colors, then gained puffiness, added bruises and transformed into a person I didn’t know. Just as fast as the transformation started it stopped. I remember just getting to sleep one night when out of nowhere I felt a warm breeze touch me and my grandma was gone. Call it what you will, but I think it was my grandma’s spirit saying “Goodbye.”

But why God?

The pain…the patience…the trust.

Then I remembered our body is just our outer shell we don’t take it with us. It’s not really who we are. We should not be scared of the changes it goes through, but to remember the true person inside. It is still our loved one in all of that transformation. It is our spirit deep down within us that will live on forever. It is who we are!

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart,

And lean not on your own understanding;

In all your ways acknowledge Him,

And He shall direct your paths.”

Proverbs 3:5-6 (NKJV)

 

It is during the hardest of times that we learn the most!

Pain, patience and trust are all part of life not just in training for a 5K. If we did not go through the pain in our life, learn the patience and trust in God’s plan for us, we would not ever get to enjoy the finish line of eternal life.