Do hard things

"'Peter began to say to him, “See, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life." Mark 10:28-30 ESV

People that do hard things... that would definitely describe the group of runners I'm blessed to be a part of that gets together as often as possible to support one another in our training—something we did yesterday that prompted my friend Kate to later post, "When you have friends that do Hard Things, you wake up to run 11 miles with them on an October Monday morning..." And not only did Kate have to wake up early to make it the 6:30 a.m. group run, something that wasn't easy in itself, she then completed the miles in her training plan (as the others did as well by running more or less) and went off to work a full day. But that's the power of having friends who know that doing hard things is worth the effort; they inspire others to join them in their pursuit of the great rewards reaped from the sweat, toil and trouble of their strain. 

And you know, while having friends who share our running goals can be crucial to our success on the racecourse, having friends who share our goals of faithfully following and serving Jesus throughout a lifetime can be crucial to our spiritual success. You see, serving Christ is hard... very hard. Something Peter acknowledged when he said to Jesus, "See, we have left everything and followed you." But Jesus was clear that it was worth the effort when He said that whoever gave up all they had to follow Him would reap the rewards "now in this time... and in the age to come eternal life." A fact our godly friends will remind us of so we don't give up!

So if you have friends that share your passion to serve Christ, consider yourself blessed. They will encourage and inspire you to press on through the hard times. But if you don't, you would do well to find some. They can literally make all the difference in whether you give up when things get hard or press on to the finish line. 

Heavenly Father, thank You for the reminder that doing hard things reaps real rewards, rewards that are worth our all-out effort. Help us to understand the importance of having fellow believers as friends that we would seek them out and fellowship with them often. Give us a passion to stay in the fight no matter how hard it might get. It's in your precious name we pray Jesus. Amen. 

Happy Running!!!

Keep fighting the good fight