Consistency is Key

Hi everyone! I am coming back from a little "hiatus" from posting because I had a crazy week last week! I had to head out to a funeral last weekend, then fit everything in for work between Monday and Wednesday because Jared and I took our summer vacation early and headed to Boston!

It's ironic that I'm talking about consistency after I haven't been very consistent the last few days on posting. Enjoy the irony.

But today, I went running and I was feeling great. I've lost a few pounds recently (it's like my body finally had an "aha" moment...it helps to count calories too) and I can feel the difference when I run. I feel lighter, faster and dare I say, sleeker when I run. Don't ask me why I describe it that way...it's just the word that comes into my head when I try to describe the feeling!

However, I broke a cardinal rule of running; I started my run way too fast. I wasn't able to hold my pace and each mile just got slower and slower. By the end, I was dying. My stomach was really mad at me and was making me feel it while my legs protested every step of the last two miles (and it was only a four mile run). While I am proud of my mental skills to keep pushing myself, I'm mad at my mental skills for not using my noggin at the BEGINNING of the run. Many times, this is what makes or breaks a runner during a long distance race. They get amped up at the beginning, run with people who are going too fast and then dog it the last part of the race.

What we should do is find the point where we know we can sustain the whole race at that speed. What I've learned from reading Tom Holland's book "The Marathon Method" is the trick with the long distance race isn't who goes the fastest, it's who slows down the least. All I can say is, amen brother. So having a consistent pace where you can run that same pace the entire race is a crucial skill I need to learn in order to have a great race experience.

Consistency is something we need to learn in life too. I have been reading "Mere Christianity." It's my second time through the book and it still never ceases to amaze me the kind of wisdom that comes from C. S. Lewis' mind. He talks about morality as it pertains to an individual person. It's true, that when we see someone do a courageous act, we call them courageous. When we see someone being kind, we label them as a kind person. However, we could be wrong. We don't know the motives behind someone's actions. They could be kind but be doing it for the wrong reasons which would not make them a kind person. The key to having character, to being a just, wise, kind, loving person like God designed us to be, is consistency. When someone chooses to be kind to not just one person, but all the people around them, then they are a kind person. When someone is courageous no matter the situation, we then say they are a courageous person. Time and testing show the true colors of someone. We can't (and shouldn't every) judge someone just based off of one moment of their life. C. S. Lewis gives the example that even a broken clock shows the correct time at least twice a day.

So take a page from James 1:2-4
"My brothers and sisters, consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you will be perfect and complete, not deficient in anything."

Let the testing begin. And in the meantime...run. :)