Posted on by jwlozano

Grace for the Race

Last week, I wrote about running our own race and staying focused on the path God has marked out for us. But during that same 10K race, something happened that stayed with me long after I crossed the finish line.

As I was running, I saw a woman walking in the opposite direction, crying.

I don’t know her story. Maybe she got hurt. Maybe she realized the distance was more than she expected. I truly don’t know the details, and this is in no way meant to shame her.

But seeing her walk away from the course made me think about how easy it can be in life to feel like turning around and giving up.

Sometimes life feels overwhelming. Sometimes we hit seasons where we think, “I don’t know if I can keep doing this.”

Maybe it’s your finances.
Maybe it’s your marriage.
Maybe it’s parenting, ministry, work, or just the weight of life itself.

Paul encouraged believers over and over again to keep going. In Galatians 6:9 he writes:

“So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.”

I love that verse because it acknowledges something important:
Sometimes you will feel tired.

But tired doesn’t always mean it’s time to quit.

One thing I love about races is that all throughout the course there are water stations. And it always amazes me how they seem to appear at exactly the right moment, right when you feel like you really need one.

When you’re running, stopping briefly at a water station doesn’t mean you failed the race. It doesn’t mean you quit. It simply means you needed to refresh yourself so you could keep going.

And I think Jesus is that for us.

Jesus said:

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”

Sometimes what we need is not to give up.
Sometimes we simply need rest.
We need to pause, regroup, pray, worship, breathe, and spend time in the presence of God.

The goal isn’t to push ourselves until we completely fall apart. The goal is to stay in the race.

2 Peter 1:3 reminds us that God has given us everything we need for life and godliness. That means whatever season we are facing, God will provide the strength, grace, wisdom, and endurance we need to keep moving forward.

So if you’re tired, rest.
If you’re weary, go to Jesus.
If you’re discouraged, pause at the water station.

But don’t give up mid-race.

Posted on by jwlozano

Run Your Race

One of my favorite passages of Scripture is found in 1 Corinthians 9:24–27. Paul writes:

“Don’t you realize that in a race everyone runs, but only one person gets the prize? So run to win. All athletes are disciplined in their training. They do it to win a prize that will fade away, but we do it for an eternal prize. So I run with purpose in every step. I’m not just shadowboxing. I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should. Otherwise, I fear that after preaching to others, I myself might be disqualified.”

Part of my goal for this summer is to let some of you get to know me a little bit better, and one of my favorite things in the world is running.

I started running in 2018, and over the years I’ve completed a few half marathons and even a marathon. I had to take a couple years off because of some different life circumstances, but this year I’m finally back to running consistently for the first time in three years, and honestly, it feels amazing.

There’s just something about being outside in God’s creation that brings me peace. The quiet. The movement. The fresh air. It clears my mind and settles my spirit in a way that’s hard to explain unless you’ve experienced it yourself.

A couple of weeks ago, I ran my longest race of the year so far, a 10K. The event also included a 5K, a half marathon, and a full marathon. Those races started before ours, so by the time we got onto the trail, runners from all the different distances were already spread out along the course.

At one point, I saw someone already turning around and heading back toward the finish line, and for a second I thought, How are they already that far ahead of me?

Then I remembered… they weren’t running my race.

They may have been part of the half marathon or the marathon. Their turnaround point was different than mine because their course was different than mine.

And immediately I felt the Lord speak something to my heart:

Stop comparing yourself to people who were never assigned your race.

How often do we do that in life?

We look around and think:
“They already bought a house.”
“They’re married.”
“They have kids.”
“They’re traveling.”
“They seem further ahead.”
“They’re doing better than me.”

And before we know it, we feel behind simply because we’re measuring our journey against someone else’s course.

But God never asked us to run their race.

He asked us to faithfully run ours.

We are not competing with other people. We are not competing with other ministries, organizations, or platforms. Our responsibility is simply to run the race God has marked out for us, and to run it well.

One of my favorite verses is Psalm 37:23:

“The steps of the righteous are ordered by the Lord.”

That verse has grounded me so many times.

When I feel behind…
When I feel uncertain…
When I wonder if I should be further along than I am…

I remind myself that if my life belongs to God, then He is ordering my steps.

Not because I’ve earned it through perfection or performance, but because I belong to Him.

That means every step matters.
Every season has purpose.
Every delay, every stretch of growth, every quiet season, every new beginning, God sees it all.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:26:

“So I run with purpose in every step.”

That’s what I want my life to look like.

Not distracted.
Not constantly comparing.
Not discouraged because someone else appears farther ahead.

I want to run with purpose the race God has given me.

Paul also says:

“I discipline my body like an athlete, training it to do what it should.”

If I’m honest, there are plenty of mornings when I don’t want to run.

I don’t want to get up early.
I don’t want to run when it’s cold.
I don’t want to look at my training schedule and realize I have seven or eight miles ahead of me.

Sometimes I’d rather stay on the couch and watch a movie.

But training teaches you something important:
You don’t always do what you feel like doing. You train yourself to do what you should do.

And I think spiritually, that matters too.

So many people are overwhelmed because they’re focusing on everybody else’s calling, everybody else’s success, everybody else’s timeline.

But maybe the better question is simply:
What should I be doing right now?

Not ten years from now.
Not what someone else is doing.
Not what social media says your life should look like.

Just:
“What has God asked me to do today?”

Micah 6:8 says this:

“No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good, and this is what He requires of you: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”

That’s it.

Run your race.
Do what’s right.
Love mercy.
Walk humbly with God.

And trust that if He ordered your steps, He knows exactly where He’s leading you.

Posted on by jwlozano

Run YOUR Race

Head over to my podcast for 5 ways to RUN YOUR RACE!! Seeking God, Loving Others.

“…let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,”
‭‭Hebrews‬ ‭12:1‬ ‭NIV‬‬

In 48 hours, I’ll be running my first marathon. I can’t believe that after almost 8 months of training it’s time. It’s time to run my race. My training has been interrupted more times than I care to remember but I’ve made it through.

I’ve learned so much over the past few months about both running and life. Many of the blog posts I’ve written were worked out during a run on the trails.

As I’ve been preparing for this race, I’ve come across Hebrews 12:1 quite a bit. In fact, the planner I use has a monthly verse and this month’s verse was Hebrews 12:1! Coincidence? I don’t think so.

This verse is such a powerful reminder that each of us has our own race to run that God has marked out for us. But many of us are too busy looking at other people’s races and envying their results.

I’ve found it so freeing actually running my own race. Both physically and spiritually. I use a running app that is basically like Facebook but for runners. We can see our friends’ runs and comment and like but I’ve heard many people say they feel bad about their own run after seeing others’ stats.

When we compare ourselves to others, it actually slows us down in our own race. We end up doing too much too soon or losing focus on what God wants us to do.

If I look at and envy the free time my friend has while her kids are at school, I won’t be content in homeschooling my children even though it’s the race God has marked for me.

If I envy the lavish vacation someone on Facebook posts, I won’t be content with sticking to the financial goals God has marked out for my family.

When we run the race that God has marked out for us in our homes, business, career or family, we can trust that he has everything figured out.

I know a few people who have a running coach. If ever I win the lottery, that will be one of my splurges. A running coach can create a plan tailored specific to your goals. You don’t have to think about what workout you need to do or how far you need to run; you just look at your plan. And if something comes up that interferes with your training, your running coach adjusts things and moves them around.

Now, a running coach is not in my budget (yet) but I do have access to someone who has created a tailored plan for my life. I don’t have to worry about what city to live in or what job to take, I can just look at his plan. I don’t have to know how long it will take for my blog to get noticed or my book to get published. I can look at his plan and know that “he who began a good work will carry it to completion” (Philippians 1:6).

When something interferes with my race, he can move things around so that “all things are working together for my good” (Romana 8:28). If you haven’t caught on, I’m talking about God! God has every detail of my life, and yours, mapped out and when we stay in our lane, stay in his word and stay in his presence, we WILL run our race and run it well.

Posted on by jwlozano

Run Your Race

I recently began running again after almost a year off due to the pandemic. I am a new runner. I started in 2018 and have run a few races, including a half marathon. When I started I could barely run a quarter of mile without feeling like a lung was going to fall out of my body, so when I ran 13.1 miles (well, 13.84 miles, the course was off #humblebrag), I couldn’t believe I had come so far.

Fast forward to 2021, and I feel like I’ve never run. EVER. In my life. I’m slower, I’m tired, and it is hard. I just want to wave a magic wand and go back to where I was this time last year. 

But I can’t. And sometimes, that’s discouraging. I looked at the numbers from my half-marathon and saw that my slowest mile of the 13+ plus miles was still faster than my current mile! I had to make a decision: Give up and just live in the past or keep moving and get better everyday.

I chose the latter. 

I was reminded of a verse in Philippians about what I was experiencing. The people who know me well know that I have a verse for everything! There’s no situation I’ve come across where I was unable to find comfort and guidance in the Bible.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead,  I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (PHIL 3:13-14)

While it can be helpful to look back from time to time to remember and reflect, it is not always beneficial. It’s easy to get trapped in the mistakes or failures from years ago or envy a better time of your life. But the apostle Paul would tell us not to waste time on things that don’t propel us to our destination.

When I looked at my racing numbers through a different lens, I was encouraged to know that since I trained and got better before, I could do it again. And I could do it better. What’s in front of you is going to be better than what’s behind you.

We all go through ups and down but what matters is whether or not we move forward through them. Don’t allow yourself to get trapped in the closet of the past. Put one foot in front of the other and run your race.