From "Magnificent Mile" to "Battleship Half-Marathon" God is still in control

God has once again surpassed my expectations. Two weekends ago I opened the season with a 5k (March of Dimes 5k). Didn't run a great time, but I was thankful to win. This past weekend I ran the first race in the local Grand Prix road racing series. It was a mile race, the event I ran in college, but not something I was looking forward to. My college teammates and I have a saying, "As you get older you run longer because the short races are just too painful to train for and to race.

Last season I ran a 10 mile race, something I never chose to do on purpose because it just seemed too long and painful. But because there was prize money, and it was in a small town, and we needed Christmas money to buy presents for our kids, I decided to think of it as a long run day, hope no one good showed up, and see if God might just bless us.... Well, that happened. I actually ran a great time, won the race, and really enjoyed myself. The race was so much more relaxed than the intense mile and 5k races I have run for years.

After that race I began to set my sights on a half-marathon because... well all the real runners run marathons and half-marathons. As we began looking into it, we realized how much it was going to cost to enter a race... and then you have to pay for housing and gas and food... and where we were at in life (then and even now) that was just not going to happen. So I chalked it up to a good idea and decided to run whatever God opened up in our town and that we could afford.

So after this opening mile race of the Grand Prix series, and not really training for it, I found myself pleasantly surprised. I ran a decent time (5:26), won the masters, unknowingly broke the NC state masters record, got 8th overall right at the back end of the elite pack, and was very excited to experience the feeling of running fast again. Now after the race is where God showed up, and I believe revealed to me His blessing for waiting on him and not getting all stressed out because what I wanted to begin doing last season didn't happen.

A race director and coach from UNC Chapel Hill that I have known for years came up to me and asked if I'd be interested in running two championship races he was helping put on. One was a local 5k (The Second Empire 5k) and the other was a half-marathon (OBX Half-Marathon) at the Outer Banks in NC. He then said he would pay my entry fees and housing for my whole family, and that I very likely would win some prize money.

I sort of stood there in unbelief. Every runner wants to be an invited elite runner where the race director pays your expenses to come and participate in their race. So I stood there in awe of God's timing and His ways. I didn't try to force things to happen last year, and now God has gone beyond my expectations. I am being invited all expenses paid to do something I was trying to force into happening last year... okay, so now I have to train for a half-marathon I wasn't really preparing for, but I guess God also has a sense of humor in his surprises.

In all this God reminds me that when His timing is perfect, everything will fall into place for Ken and I and our kids to go to Europe and help plant dynamic radical churches that will reach this generation... all expenses paid.