Sometimes you learn from others and sometimes you learn from experience.

A few days ago I walked a 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) road race. Finishing where I thought I would, perhaps a little ahead, I was pleased with the outcome. It was a beautiful, sunny autumn day and the crowd was in a positive mood.

There's more to the story. Walking that far at a good clip isn't something I would have seen myself doing six years ago when I began a battle with chronic fatigue. Getting up off the sofa was a big achievement, but as the saying goes—time heals. Learning patience, however, is another challenge!

Plan ahead

Training for this race took me six years, but the "official" training required a 10-week schedule of walking at increasing length and speed. Goals and good intentions are great, but training and planning make things happen.

Because I had logged my training hours, I was able to push myself to achieve more than my initial goal for the race, which was simply to finish. I kept up a pace and improved my personal minutes per mile—having several thousand people in the competition helped too!

It made me realize that we require interaction and positive challenges to improve ourselves. That's why God has allowed so many of us to inhabit the planet! He could have had us live our lives one person at a time, kind of like being stranded on a deserted island waiting to be rescued, but what fun would that be?

Don't cheat

On the other hand, people can be peculiar. At the start of the race the officials reminded all competitors that this was a walking race—no running! The top finishers were speed walkers, and according to observers some clocked 8-minute miles simply by walking with good form! Some were also working toward Olympic goals.

Most of us were competing against ourselves in order to improve our times. The crowd was large enough that we couldn't all start at once. Since we each had a computer chip clipped to our shoes, our times began when we crossed the starting line.

However, mid-race more than a few individuals felt the urge to run (in this case a disqualifying offense). The message on the shirt of one fellow competitor said, Why run slow when you can walk really fast? I had to ask myself—what's the point of running when you've knowingly entered a walking race and are merely trying to better your own time? My guess: pride.

Learn well

In the book of Ecclesiastes the author spoke of the race not being to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. It's true! Not everything goes according to how we perceive it should. On the other hand, the apostle Paul wrote of running (or walking, as the case may be) a race in such a way so as to win—the ultimate goal being not just a temporary victory, but becoming a part of God's eternal family.

Our athletic ventures aren't the epicenter of our lives, but some of the lessons we learn along the way can illustrate the dedication it takes to achieve a far greater goal, an existence in the ultimate prize—the Kingdom of God! Read more about this in the article "Courageous Olympic Moments—and the Race We Run." VT