It is Just a Hill ... Get Over It!

This morning I got up and drove to Magnolia to walk in the Blossom Festival 5K. My niece and her friend were going to meet me there. However, I received a text yesterday, telling me that they just weren't feeling a 5K. I still planned on going if the weather wasn't bad. Rain was in the forecast, so I checked the weather map before I left. It didn't look bad, so I decided to go. I figured that I had lived in Magnolia for 7 years, surely I could find somebody I knew to walk with.

As I registered, the rain began. I looked around, and did not know many people at all. The few I knew were either running, or already had groups that they were walking with. So I could tell that I would be walking alone... in the rain. The first mile was horrible. When I walk, I usually listen to the radio on my iPhone. The signal was awful. Therefore, the station I was listening to kept going off. So, I was walking in the rain, alone, and with no music! And the rain had not cooled anything off, instead, it was causing steam to rise from the ground. I was miserable!!!! I made it to the first mile, and was still mumbling and complaining in my mind.

As I came to the halfway mark, they had water for us. I grabbed my cup, drank it down, and even threw my cup to the ground like a real racer. I felt refreshed. I thought I am going to make it, and go home. That was when God intervened into my thoughts. He asked me if I wanted to continue mumbling, or if I wanted to change my attitude. Then He told me that I had spent the whole time complaining about being alone when I could have been talking to Him. Yes, it was raining, but He had kept the storms away. I knew that I could change my attitude and finish strong, or I could continuing mumbling and drag over the finish line.

By mile 2 I had changed my attitude. I didn't even mumble once when I realized that the last leg of the race was all up hill, and I was walking into the wind. I even got tickled when I saw a man holding a sign that said "It is just a hill... get over it!"

That is what my grumbling, mumbling, and complaining had been ... a hill. I had to get over it, and I did. I finished strong. As a matter of fact, I had knocked 8 minutes off my previous 5K time. I felt energized, and proud of myself.

This is true not just for walking, but for life. If we spend our time complaining, we miss out on opportunities to finish strong. We can choose to mumble and complain or we can choose to change our attitude.

Do everything readily and cheerfully—no bickering, no second-guessing allowed! Philipians 2:14 (The Message)