Don't Stop Running

It is January 31st, officially the last day of January. How is the first month of the new year already over?! I decided that I wanted to spend this week sharing a little piece of encouragement with everyone. Life is exhausting, change is hard, and sometimes we just need to be reminded to keep running the race.

So many of us spend the first few days of January dreaming, manifesting, and preparing for the upcoming year. We write down big goals and invest in organic produce. We drink our daily recommended ounces of water and try to get a good nights’ rest. All of this sticks until the first weekend of January, when we want to reward ourselves for being so diligent throughout the week, am I right? The second week of January we may jump right back on track, or we might be teetering on the edge of commitment to a better year and contentment with a repeat of last year, and likely, by the end of the month, we have found ourselves slipping back into old habits and forgetting all the visions we had for the new year just a few weeks ago. Why? Why does this happen without fail year after year? Why do we find ourselves stuck in this cycle time and time again? I’ll tell you why. Because change is hard people. Life happens and as much as we wish we could magically bring our vision boards to life, sometimes God has other plans. Sometimes we forget how much work it takes to achieve our goals and sometimes we let the stress of our everyday routines get the best of us. Sometimes, we quit. We sit down. We fall over. We never finish the race.

Don’t let that story be your story in 2019. Don’t settle for a narrative that isn’t everything you dreamed of on January 1st. We know that Hebrews calls us to run with endurance the race that God has set before us. Endurance. Endurance, by definition, is “the fact or power of enduring an unpleasant or difficult process or situation without giving way”. Have we endured the past 31 days? Have we pressed on when life has hit us square between the eyes? Have we worked harder towards our goals or backed down in fear and timidity? Are we enduring the race that lies before us, or are we barely treading along this path?

While God calls us to play an active part in this endurance, we know that He doesn’t call us to take a step without Him taking a step right beside us. Many of us have heard that verse from Hebrews, but 2 Samuel 22 brings us the encouragement we need to live out Hebrews 12. 2 Samuel tells us that the God who has girded me with strength has opened wide my path. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; He causes me to stand on the heights.

Read that again and let it sink in. Friends, is that not the greatest encouragement for today? No matter what your January has looked like, or what race you are running, God has clothed you in the strength to live well. He brings us to the heights, He makes our feet as swift as a deer, and He does not make us endure alone. This is my encouragement for you today. Whoever is reading this, wherever you are, do not give up. Keep going, keep pressing on, keep running this race! Lean into the Lord, know your heart is cared about here at Doing Twenty Something, and whatever you do, do not stop moving forward. You can do this. We can do this, together.

XO