Eating the Elephant

To many people who have never run more than a mile or so, running 5 or 10 miles seems like a ridiculous amount of running.  When they hear you have run a marathon, they are baffled at why you would ever want to run that far.  That is, if they even know a marathon is 26.2 miles. After telling some people I just ran a marathon, they reply, "You have! How far was that one?" thinking any foot race is a marathon! I suppose it is true to some extent.....Any amount of mileage one sets out to conquer that seems a huge undertaking, is a marathon.  Because, according to the legend of the marathon, the Greek runner, Phillippides, ran 75 miles of rough terrain from the city of Marathon to Sparta to seek help from the the Spartans only to run the 75 miles back to report they could not come to help. The Greeks miraculously won the battle losing only 192 warriors to the Persian's 6,400. Phillipides, after running the 150 miles, fought in the battle, and then, was chosen to take the news of the victory to Athens! So he raced 25 miles to Athens and after shouting "Rejoice, we conquer!" he collapsed and died. A marathon represents commitment to a purpose and finishing what you set out to do with all your focus on the goal. Now I have never done what Phillpides did...I am not sure I could.  I have run four marathons in four consecutive days, three around Lake Tahoe followed by 107 mile drive and no sleep to run a trail marathon in Susanville, CA. I also have run two marathons on two consecutive days around Lake Tahoe to be followed by a 72.2 miler all the way around  the lake a few hours later, totaling 154.6 miles in about 28 hours. Even these are not to be compared to the feats of people who have run the extreme weather conditions of the Badwater Ultra, a 135-mile race from Badwater in Death Valley (elev. 282 feet below sea level) to Whitney Portals on Mt. Whitney (elev. 8360 feet) or Pam Reed, who in 2005, was the first person to complete a 300-mile run without sleep. Then there is Marshall Ulrich, at the age of 57,broke two transcontinental speed records when he ran 3,063.2 miles in 52.5 days from San Francisco to New York. Every person has a different reason for choosing to embark on these types of adventures.  Often it is to test ones limits, or support causes for diseases that have taken loved ones or even threatens the life of the person running. Many times it is to overcome weaknesses of character.  Every race is conquered the same way, one foot in front of the other, quitting never an option. " How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time."  What elephant are you facing today that seems so enormous you think you can never get it all down? God wants to do for us  what we can  never do in our own strength. He wants to make us better people than we can ever try to be and do things we never dreamed.We only have to take one bite at a time and one step at a time to "press toward the mark for the prize of the calling of God in Christ Jesus." Phil.3:14 "Rejoice, we conquer!"

New Every Morning

This is the view that welcomes me as I step out my back door for my morning runs.  The sky is vast with nothing between me and the Sierra but foothills that transition the valley to majestic mountains.  One lone palm tree stands like a sentinal at the end of the fields overseeing the little rolling hills which were at one time relatively untouched by man. This month we have lived on this ranch 26 years with those hills only changing from brown to green  with the passing seasons and the rotation of the cattle to different grazing pastures. In the spring migrating geese and other waterfowl would land in the lowland ponds formed by the winter rains to rest and feed on the empty silage fields. Coyotes, foxes, bobcats and even a mountain lion have wandered and hunted those hills.  I  have often ran along coyotes out scouting  for their breakfast. But times are changing...the agricultural machines have been eating up the land for big-money-producing crops of walnuts, almonds and grapes.With the new drip line systems they can now use the hills they could not irrigate in the past. According to  http://www.bluediamond.com, 40 acres can produce up 80 thousand pounds of nuts! Day after day big heavy equipment with huge forks have dug deeply into the ground ripping the fallow ground up. After months of ground preparation there are now thousands of acres with rows of newly planted trees. It makes me sad to see this change. The longer I lived here the less I wanted it to change. But change, both good and bad, is a necessary part of life that makes us grow.  There are some things that are beautiful because they do change like sunrises and sunsets.  In fact, no two are alike. Every breath we take, every day of life needs to be different or we die.  And with each, God supplies enough strength, love and mercy.  I have a hard time changing...I struggle with bad habits and poor choices, sometimes I wonder if I will ever change in to the likeness of God. But each sunrise brings the hope of change. Solomon said, " This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope. It is of the Lords's mercies that we are not consummed, because his compasions fail not.  They are new every morning:  great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul;  therefore will I hope in Him." Lamentations 3:21-24