let's get it started

Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint -Isaiah 40:31

My boys and I have this cardio routine we do every week. It involves 9 rounds of 3 minutes on the jump rope. Each round is a different focus for footwork and strength - 3 minutes doesn't sound very long, but when you're trying to do kicks or footwork or freaking knee ups as fast as you can...it pretty much sucks.

As if that wasn't enough, in between the rounds we sprint for a minute back and forth. Have you ever tried sprinting as hard as you can for a minute? It's a pretty long time. If you're doing it right, your lungs should be wanting to explode by 20 seconds. And then you realize you're only a third of the way there.

At the end of each sprint, we're heaved over trying to catch our breath - only to have to start jump roping again. And so it goes. It's a great cardio workout and in retrospect feels pretty good to be exhausted - but while you're doing it, you're just constantly trying to fight off mental and physical fatigue.

Today we decided to be hardcore and do all the cardio with all our gear on. As in, putting on armpads, shinpads, a chest protector, and a helmet and having all that extra weight and suffocation so that we'd get tired faster and have to push harder. So close to the tournament, I guess we have to up the stakes day by day.

So as I was heaving today and trying to dog it through all the sprints with all this extra weight enclosing me, I thought to Isaiah. When you hit rock bottom and your legs are too sore to move, your eyes are too dry to blink, and your brain shuts off at the thought of blowing out the processor with too much information requests - the notion of running without growing weary is really crazy.

But God is crazy like that.

I'm reminded that regardless of all the extra weight we carry that makes it harder to get through our 'workout' - or perhaps even when we pile it upon ourselves - His grace is sufficient.

How would you run if you knew you wouldn't get tired?

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