Please hold on

“Blessed is the man who keeps on going when times are hard. After he has come through them, he will receive a crown. The crown is life itself. God has promised it to those who love him.” James 1:12

I’ve been a long distance runner since middle school. I joined the cross country team as a 7th grader, mainly because that’s what my dad did and I was such a daddy’s girl, but I really grew to love it. I continued running all through high school and still run some today. I’m nowhere close to the kind of shape I was in high school but I still run with my dad a couple times a week. 

One summer I decided I wanted to get really serious about running so I started training with a private coach. Coach Carter. I’ll never forget him and his deathly workouts. Man, it was torture. One thing he would always tell us as we were starting to lose energy was ‘mind over matter’. I’m sure you've heard this before. My interpretation of it is you put your goal above what you are feeling in the moment. The internet defines it as: the use of willpower to overcome physical problems.

So that summer when I’d reach the last lap of the 1500m I’d hear Coach Carter yelling “mind over matter Nash!” No matter what I was feeling in that moment I would push aside the extreme fatigue and focus on my goal time and the fact that I was almost done. I learned that summer that your mind is a very powerful thing and mindset is everything. 

Reading James 1:12 I was thinking of how mindset relates to our relationship with God. When we are going through hard times we often feel like it’s the end of the world. We are convinced God has forgotten us. We are so blinded by the pain of the moment we forget all the times God has been faithful. 

One of my first blog posts was about how God doesn't waste our pain. When we are in the thick of tragedy we must remember that God is feeling our pain. He may be protecting us with this pain, He may be preparing us with this pain, He may be getting our attention with this pain, but He will never waste it.  

God has called us to persevere. 

We must stay close to our Father through the storm even when it seems impossible. 

In the midst of struggle, we tend to hold back from God but we must remember He is right there with us. Tell Him you’re mad, tell Him you’re confused why these things are happening, be honest with Him. He can handle it. Ask God into your troubles and talk to people you love and trust. Don’t isolate. You’re not alone. 

So friend, if you feel like you're fighting for your life today please hold on. Put one foot in front of the other. You’ve got this. Put mind over matter today and remember that God hasn't left you and He never will.