Sprinting in a Marathon

June 26^th 2009

Over the past few days I have been reading daily devotionals that talked about running the race. Running a race is usually about endurance and no matter how short you have to have the endurance built up to make it through that race. It made me think about this current tour in Afghanistan and the endurance that it will take to make it to the end successfully. Geri and I have known since I got back last time that I would be deploying in the Spring / Summer of 2009 to Afghanistan so the building of endurance started from the time I got back from Iraq last time. In a way we never recovered from the first race before we had to prepare for the next. Thankfully we have good friends and good support that helped us prepare, whether they knew it or not.

We moved to Colorado in 2006 knowing that I would be gone to Baghdad soon after we arrived, the difference between then and now was that we knew no one. So we fell back on family. Towards the end of that tour Geri moved back to Colorado from NY and got plugged in at CCES (Calvary Chapel Eastside) and soon we had two families. I am thankful that during this tour Geri and the kids have two families watching over them.

But family and friends aren’t always enough in a tough race. Its always nice to have someone there to cheer you on. A familiar face or voice, but in long distance races you need more because your fans aren’t gonna follow you for 26.2 miles and cheer you on the whole way. That’s where GOD comes in. I am thankful that these deployments have taught us even more how we need to not only rely on each other, friends and family, but more under GODs protective arm. When you embark on a long run you have a lot of time to think, reflect, listen, and contemplate. Being apart from my better human half I find I have more time to concentrate on the best part of life and that’s GODs Amazing Grace.

But in reality this race that our family is in is a sprint in the marathon that is life and I know that this experience will only bring us closer to GOD and help us grow in our faith more. So think about the race your running, and who is gonna cheer you on the whole way (not just at the beginning and/or the end). I am thankful that GOD has seen us through all our races up to this point, he will see us through this short sprint, and see us through in the end.

GOD Bless

Jason