Hope in the midst of it all

I always try to encourage people by telling them to keep the faith. A couple of years ago, it was just a saying, words that I uttered but didn't really understand or internalize. It was easy for me to say and do because I never really had anything which tested that faith. Sure, I hit some pretty low depths during endurance events, but those were more physical, temporary, and clearly self-induced. Now having been through and out the other side of some of life's "worst" offerings I can share those words with the full knowledge that through it all, God's steadfast love never ceases and his mercies never fail us. Keeping the faith has new, deeper meaning. When faith is all you have to cling to, it's good to know that it is enough.

I recently re-connected with a high school buddy of mine while on business in the Boston area, and we met for a lunchtime run in Wellesley at the start of the toughest part of the Boston Marathon course. From the starting line in Hopkinton into Wellesley, it's basically 13.1 miles of rolling downhills. From Wellesley through Newton culminating with Heartbreak Hill, you have nearly 8 miles of uphill. We were catching up on nearly 30 years of life since graduation when the hills began to take their toll causing him to slow down and eventually walk. While he recovered his breath, our discussion turned to faith. "I don't know what people do without faith," he stated. "In some of my darkest moments I always knew there was hope, in the midst of it all, something to cling to."

I hadn't given much thought to where we had met or why I had picked that location as our starting point, but in retrospect it served as a great reminder to us both of how much we had endured and yet become even more steadfast in our faith. The "hills" of life had served out their purposes, slowing us down but ultimately serving to strengthen our respective faiths, emboldened by the knowledge that we were both very different people than we had been while coasting through life's flat and otherwise downhill (read: easier) sections. Our common bond and renewed belief had, after all of these years, brought us together on this day to remind one another that God never brings us to something without bringing us through something. Our hope is in Him, the one who took the worst this world had to offer upon Himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, so that we can keep the faith and have hope even in the midst of life's most difficult days. BELIEVE.

"Yet I still dare to hope, when I remember this:
The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease".

Lamentations 3: 21-22