Just Past Half Way

And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith.

Hebrew 12:1-2

When I was in high school, I ran on the cross country team. If you have ever run competitively, you know that there is a point in the race when you reach half way and you have less distance to go then what you have already covered. 

We have reached that point in Josh's chemotherapy treatments. We have fewer treatments left then what we have been through already. We have faced some difficult challenges and we have seen God bless us in unexpected ways. There have been things that were easier then we expected and things that were harder.

When running I learned that although I may have less distance to travel to the end of the race then what I had already gone, the second half of the race is not always easier. Sometimes, the second half is a down hill slope and you can coast to the finish line other times it is all up hill.

I went to school at Faith Academy, in the Philippines and our cross country race was in the hills around the school. The down hill slope was the first half of the race and you had to run up hill most of the way back to the finish line.

Faith Academy, Manila Philippines

The school sits on top of a hill with a beautiful view of the surrounding area

We learned early on in the cross country season to set a pace that gave us the strength to finish the race. Often our competing teams would take off from the starting line at breakneck speeds, only to run out of steam before the finish line.

As we run this race of life,  sometimes the path is more difficult during the second half. We are half way through the chemotherapy treatments and it is easy to feel daunted by what lies a head. I hope that we will find it is all down hill from here, but some days it looks like there are steeper hills in front of us.

What we have learned so far in this journey is that God is faithful. Each day He provides what we need when we need it. Some days it is a note of encouragement, other days it is getting the opportunity to share our faith with others. We see Him at work in our lives and those around us. 

In high school when we were running the race, when we reached the bottom of the last hill, if you looked up, you could get discouraged and think you would never reach the top. But if you focused on taking one step at a time, you could climb that hill. And then, as you came over the top, you remembered that the finish line was just over the peak of the hill.

We may not be able to see the finish line, but we know that God is with us each step of the way, and when we get there, we will be surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who will see all that He has done.