This week, my race took a turn. The course got a little tougher. This week, my husband was diagnosed with diabetes. It has not been an easy few days as he has tried to come to grips with a life that will need to be lived out differently than before. It has been difficult as he has struggled with feeling lousy as he has tried to adjust to new medication. It has been painful to watch and to know that I really can't help him make the adjustment; it will eventually have to come from him.
Last summer I struggled with my own serious health issue. And I remember so clearly sitting in the waiting room of the doctor's office thinking that this would be my life from now on ... round after round of doctor's visits. Physically feeling weak and exhausted. My life would no longer be the way it had been before. Graciously, God has given me a reprieve...not a cure...but a reprieve and I have gone on with my life pretty much as before. But it made me stop and think.
This journey that we are on, this race that we run every day offers no guarantees of ease. And in a moment's time, the course can change from flat and level into the deepest valleys and steepest hills. And at times, it seems like I just can't keep running. Or perhaps more accurately, I just don't want to keep running.
As I have gotten older, I've come to understand that there will be times when the running stops. Sometimes all I can do is barely move ahead by placing one trembling foot in front of the other. But I know that I'm not alone on the course. God is right there beside me, urging me to keep going. The finish line may not look like I expected it to. But I believe it will be exactly as God had planned all along.
This week the race has been difficult. I have listened to the song Press On by Selah, over and over again. Its words have encouraged and comforted me. But then the Truth always does that.
Press On
When the valley is deep
when the mountain is steep
when the body is weary
when we stumble and fall.
When the choices are hard
when we're battered and scarred
when we've spent our resources
when we've given our all.
In Jesus name we press on.
In Jesus name we press on.
Dear Lord, with the prize
clear before our eyes
we find the strength to press on.
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