I hate running. But I did it regularly for years. It is a simple way to get great exercise. It doesn’t require much equipment or any other participants. It gets me out into the fresh air of wherever I happen to be. I would run at home and on vacation. I always traveled with my running gear. I only stopped because my knees eventually couldn’t do both running and tennis, and I much prefer tennis.

I hated running because it is hard. It’s work. Picking up and putting down my feet, fighting gravity at the slightest rise in the road, feeling my heart pound and my lungs burn. It’s painful. And it’s tedious. Sometimes there would be new sights to see, but usually, I ran the same route over and over. Music helped, a little. But the tempo had to be just right.

Every time I planned to go for a run, excuses would flood my head. “You can skip today,” my reluctant brain would say. “It’s too cold,” “it’s too hot,” or “it’s raining. That couch looks warm and safe and dry.” Or “let’s wait until your new running shoes arrive.” Or “your playlist isn’t quite right. Let’s stay home and work on that instead.”

I was adept at coming up with reasons not to run, but I found, if I just put on my running clothes, the excuses were so much easier to ignore, and I usually made it out the door.

“Therefore, since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let us run with endurance the race that lies before us…” (Hebrews‬ ‭12‬:‭1,‬ ‭CSB‬‬)

God has a plan for me. He has a plan for you too. When He died for me, and I accepted His gift of salvation, that was just the beginning. I have a race to run, a path to tread, a job to do, a purpose for each day — one that He says is good, pleasing, and perfect. (Rom. 12:2)

The devil would love nothing better than for me to ignore that race. He floods my head with excuses. And I provide my own. I distract myself with busyness and say, “maybe tomorrow.”

But you’ll notice today’s verse doesn’t say, throw off those hindrances and sit down. It says to throw them off and run! Get busy with God’s work: worshipping God and loving other people. Actively loving, caring for their needs, seeking their best interests, making their world better, and introducing them to our loving God. It’s hard work, but it’s the only work on earth that truly matters.

Dear God, please forgive my complacency. It’s so easy to turn inward, to stick my head in the sand, and believe that my excuses, my fears, are valid. They are not. Your work, your race, is important. Teach me how to put on my running clothes today and get to it! Show me how to get busy loving with purpose. And thank you so much for your promise to run right along beside me the whole way.