It's Not A Chore

I started running track because sprinting was about even with flipping through the air on the scale of how awesome I felt, I felt like nothing could stop me.

I ran the Cowtown Marathon last year to prove to my friends that I could actually do it.

Completing the marathon was one of the greatest and worst feelings ever.  I was able to say heck yeah I ran 26.2 miles but best of all afterward my parents took me to Babes where I was able to give my body triple the calories I burned from the marathon.  But at the exact same time all I wanted to do was lay down and not get up, and never run again.

I started running again because I wasn’t doing it for myself or to prove my friends wrong.

I was doing it for the people of Managua, Nicaragua who need real food and real homes.

I was doing it for all the people around the world who don’t have clean water.

I was doing it because I wanted to make a difference.

But then it turned into a chore, oh well I need to go run 10 miles so that I’ll be able to run 26.2 May 1^st. 

I love running.

I love helping people.

I don’t want either of those to be a chore.

What I am saying is that I am not going to be running the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon May 1.  However, I will still be running 600 miles by the time July 26 rolls around. 

I don’t want this to be a chore and I want to be doing it for the right reasons.  Knowing that I am not going to have to run a marathon in 2 weeks is a big relief.  Knowing that I can just run because I want to and because I am, hopefully, somewhere, making a difference.

I am still running for the people of Managua, Nicaragua that I will get to have my life changed by this summer.

I am still running for the people all around the world who don’t have clean water.

I am still running to make a difference…hopefully.

The only difference is there will be no marathon involved, just a goal of 600 miles.

Love,

Katie

Nicaragua

“Is it not to share your food with the hungry

and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—

when you see the naked to clothe the him,

and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?”

Isaiah 58:7

Nicaragua

• Nicaragua is the largest of the central American republics
• The illiteracy rate in Nicaragua is 23.3%
• GDP per capita is $1,028, which is 2% of the U.S.
• The mortality rate for children under the age of 5 is 38 per 1000
• 43% of people in Nicaragua live in a rural area, 2 of those 3 people survive on less than $1 a day
• 46% live in poverty, 15.1% live in extreme poverty
• Children living in regions in crisis about 40% are undernourished 
• 97% of Nicaraguans are Christian

This is what breaks my heart.

These people have so little, yet so many people are willing to give everything they have up to a stranger to help them out. 

The people of Chacocente are living on the trash.  Eating the trash.  Wearing the trash.  And offering up what they have.

I am so blessed to have everything I do, but even more than that I am blessed to get to go down there and spend time with those people.  Love those people.  Help those people.  And I cannot wait.  

Love,

Katie

Time

First I am going to apologize for the length of this post but I received an email today with this poem in it.  It was written by a girl who has 6 months left to live and just wants to see how many people will see her poem.  I don't know her name or anything about her so I can't give her credit but oh how I would love to meet her.  She seems as though she has way more wisdom that I could ever wish for.

SLOW DANCE

Have you ever 

watched 

kids

On a merry-go-round?

Or listened to 

the 

rain

Slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a 

butterfly's erratic flight?

Or gazed at the sun into the 

fading 

night?

You better slow down.

Don't 

dance so 

fast.

Time is short.

The music 

won't 

last.

Do you run through each day

On 

the 

fly?

When you ask How are you?

Do you hear 

the 

reply?

When the day is done

Do you lie 

in your 

bed

With the next hundred chores 

Running through 

your head?

You'd better 

slow down

Don't dance so 

fast.

Time is 

short.

The music won't 

last.

Ever told your 

child, 

We'll do it 

tomorrow?

And in your 

haste,

Not see 

his

sorrow?

Ever lost 

touch,

Let a good 

friendship die 

Cause you 

never had time 

To call 

and say,'Hi'

You'd 

better slow down.

Don't dance 

so fast.

Time 

is short.

The music won't 

last..

When you run 

so fast to get somewhere

You 

miss half the fun of getting 

there.

When you worry and hurry 

through your 

day,

It is like an unopened 

gift....

Thrown 

away.

Life is not a 

race.

Do take it 

slower

Hear the 

music

Before the song is 

over.

We all rush through life, I'm guilty of it.  


I make to-do lists constantly because when I get to highlight something off of it I feel so accomplished.  But is that what I really want to be remembered for?  Finishing my life to-do list?


I want people to look at my life and say wow God changed her life and consumed her.  


I don't want to leave anything left on the track.  Give it everything I have and leave with nothing.  


Stop and smell the flowers.


Stop and call your best friend right now.


Stop and Listen to God.


Just stop.


Love,
Katie

Half Marathon

“Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize?  Run in such a way as to get the prize.  Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training.  They do it to get a crown that will not last; we do it to get a crown that will last forever.  Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air.  No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

I ran my half marathon this morning.  It took my 2 hours and 24 minutes.  The only thing that hurts is my back…not my legs, not my feet or my blister on my foot, my back. 

One of my best friends, David ran his marathon in 3 hours and 9 minutes.  Finishing 45 minutes after I finished my half.  He qualified for Boston Marathon and this was his first marathon. Stud right?

When it comes to running, I generally don’t run for time, I am just trying to finish.  I mean I may not get a crown but I get a metal, the same metal as the person in front of me. 

It doesn’t last forever.  It will hang on my wall along with last year’s metals in their shadow boxes, so that I can look at them and remember how for some odd reason I decided to run.

God wants us to look at the eternal prize, Him.  Not that metal or finisher shirt waiting for us right after we cross the finish line. 

God wants us to prepare and we should want to prepare for him.  I prepare for my marathons like nobody’s business.  I need to prepare for him just as much! 

Love,

Katie 

The Greatest Love Affair

“And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

“God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.  In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.  There is no fear in love.  But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment.  The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

            “We love because he first loved us.  If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar.  For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.  And his has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.”

1 John 4:16-21

Love.

I love donuts on a Saturday morning after a long run…or not after a long run.  I love donuts. 

I generally love running. 

I love serving people. 

I love God.  God loves me.

Hate.

I hate the word hate.  But I probably use it too much.  Never about people, mostly about the foods I dislike. 

When you think about it, we all dislike something, maybe even hate it.  But we are called to love. 

God loves us no matter what. 

I mean I’m in college and love the thought of some guy singing up to my window. 

But if you think about it, truly think about.  We have the greatest love anyone could ever want.  We have unconditional love coming from God, who I would like to add created the earth!

We have the master of the universe loving us.  Unconditionally. 

I have the greatest love I could have ever imagined. 

You do too.

Love,

Katie

Answered Prayers

“And pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of requests with this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.”

Ephesians 6:18

Throughout the bible you hear of people like Hannah who prayed and fasted until the Lord answered their prayers, for Hannah it was a son!   

There are so many times throughout the day that I forget to just stop and pray for whatever it is that I am worried about because God can take that weight.

But not only to just pray but to pray faithfully, knowing that God is going to answer my prayers, it may not be the way that I want them answered but they will be answered.

I found myself going on these long runs and just jamming to my music and not even thinking about why I kept running in the first place.

I kept running because I was no longer doing it for myself but for people in need.

So why would I not be praying for these people and nations as I run?

It took me a while to figure this out and once I had figured it out I was just so upset with myself that I had to take several days off from running to really sort things out. 

But I think a lot of the time we forget how powerful prayer really can be and that we shouldn’t just be praying for ourselves and our loved ones, but for the people who don’t have loved ones that pray for them everyday. 

We NEED to pray for all the Lord’s people because all the Lord’s people NEED our prayers.

Love,

Katie

Headlamps and Railroads

“When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

John 8:12

           

Light is an essential.  God made it.  He is the light.

I like running at night, however it rarely happens.  Considering I am a girl, living on a college campus, with a protective dad, a roommate who threatens to call him if I do go running at night, and no light.

Pros to running at night:

The run is significantly prettier.

My dad is somewhat really against it

Cons to running at night:

I scare myself

When running at night you have to have a headlamp if you aren’t going to be running on the street.  I ran on the railroad tracks, so I needed that headlamp. 

Just like that headlamp last night lit my path on the railroad tracks and stopped me and my friend I went with from breaking our ankles, God is that for literally every aspect of our lives. 

Just like the railroad tracks were the path that I followed, God wants to be the path that I follow along.

Jesus doesn’t just want to be our headlamp he IS our headlamp!

Jesus doesn’t just want to be our railroad tracks he IS our railroad track!

Love,

Katie