Sometimes all it takes is all you got

En·dure verb (used with object): To hold out against; sustain without impairment or yielding undergo:

I just finished reading Scott Jurek's book "Eat & Run", and I'm no longer surprised by the things or people God puts in my life when I need them most. A good friend recommended the read, not knowing I was in the midst of the heaviest three week load of my Ironman training for Lake Placid on July 22nd. The last of these three long days, each spread one week apart , consisted of a nine hour day biking 106 miles and running 20 miles in 102 degree heat. Brutal but necessary if the actual event itself is going to be anything less than overwhelming on race day. This will be my fourth Ironman and I have learned that somedays, all it takes is all you got, which is Jurek's mantra in the book - he's an ultramarathoner significantly crazier than me, and he "gets" enduring. There were points duirng my run when I felt like packing it in; your mind rationalizes during times of intense physical stress and challenge, "You've done enough, you've gone far enough, it's too hot, you have nothing left to prove, you have nothing left in the tank". And yet, there's that inner voice which always reminds me that I don't stop when I'm tired, I stop when I'm done. Ironman is 140.6 miles, it's never cut short, the finish line doesn't move, and the clock never stops for a time-out. So you press on. You dig deep. You will yourself forward, one step at a time, one mile at a time, you push through the physical discomfort and shut out the voices which suggest you can't do this. You focus on all you did to get to this point and you simply endure. It's how I've also handled the emotional challenges of these last two years. In fact, I truly believe that learning to endure physically has enabled me to persevere through my personal trials - I'm stronger, I'm more faithful, and I know that it was during my darkest and most difficult times that God held me closest - when under my own power and left to my own devices, I would have packed it in. I don't  know what you are going through or dealing with, but I do know that you will get through it - there IS a finish line and the best way out is ALWAYS through. One issue, one challenge, one day, one week, one month at a time. It's an endurance test for sure but life is full of them, we are reminded that they serve to refine us (never to define us) and that God uses ALL circumstances in our lives for the ultimate good of those who love Him and believe. Do you Believe? It's the first and most important requirement for enduring.......  

"We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance, and endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation." Romans 5:3-4