Running the Marathon

Last month, I asked you to help me celebrate my birthday by figuratively running the Cowtown marathon with me. It was a humid day, a hilly course, and I was coming down with a stomach bug! But I finished, and thanks to all of you, raised about $900 for YouthHaven.

Running for a Good Cause

Normally, I wouldn't blatantly ask for a birthday gift, but this year is a little different. I had a chance to visit Youth Haven in Picacho, Arizona this past summer. It was amazing. This ministry gives kids a 100% free week of summer camp, then a weekend during the school year, and a Christmas experience, too.

About 50 percent of the children are in foster care. Many don't have running water at home, so they take long, hot showers at Youth Haven and think it's wonderful. Many of them have never been to church or heard about Jesus, and they fall in love with Him by the end of the week.

So, since I'm running a marathon on my birthday this coming Sunday, February 27, I wanted it to count for something, to support a good cause. Please consider helping me help Youth Haven and celebrate my birthday at the same time. These kinds of gifts are tax-deductible! For more information, please click on the link below.
https://www.youthhaven.org/lorri

Sidewalk Encouragement

It's hilly in Norcross, Geogia... and running, especially when it's cold, is a mental and physical challenge. So imagine my surprise recently when I saw encouraging messages written in chalk on the sidewalk.

The first one said, "Faith Hope Love."

A few yards later, the artist had drawn some flowers and written, "Run on!"

Then, "Say Thank You." I looked around. Who was I supposed to thank? Across the street were some guys blowing leaves. They couldn't hear me, but I smiled and waved. I felt warmer. The hills weren't so bad.

At the next and last message, I laughed out loud. It said, "It ain't raining." No, it wasn't and that always makes for a better run.

One of my favorite movie lines is from Bull Durham. The young pitcher tells a reporter, "You win some. You lose some. And sometimes it rains."

In the race of life, we win some, we lose some... and then we head to a place where it never rains. Look for encouragement where you can get it, and always on the sidewalks.

Missing the Lone Star State

No matter how far we may wander, Texas lingers with us,
coloring our perceptions of the world. -- Elmer Kelton

Georgia really is much prettier. Texas must be a State of mind.

Today I saw a big doe at Stone Mountain. I wouldn't see that on the Fort Worth levees!
Later, I fell. My shoulder is bloody and bruised. I never fell running on the levees--maybe it's these hills that are doing me in.

What's doing you in? Is it your state of mind or the hills you climb as you fight life's battles?

Bactine, chocolate, prayer and knowing I'll be back home next month for a visit to The State Fair have me feeling better.

God's Protection

This is a follow-up to the last entry about falling. My friend Craig emailed me and said, "You could have broken something. God was really watching out for you!"

And indeed He was. Not only was I not very sore the next day, the scrapes lasted about two days and were gone. And remember part of my job description these days: TV Co-host? What if I had broken my jaw, my nose or put out an eye?

And it gets better. The very next morning, on an early Sunday morning, I was jogging on a street that's usually quite quiet at that time. At the turnaround, I noticed a large truck stopped by the spot I had passed just three minutes earlier. An earth-moving machine had come loose from the truck's trailer and landed on the sidewalk. I'm talking a big, huge chain--broken in two. If that machine hit me... well, I'd probably be dead now.

It's not just me. God watches out for you, too. How many near-accidents, near-misses have you avoided on the jogging paths of life? We chalk it up to coincidence, being in the right place at the right time... but there's more to it. A lot more.

Falling

I may not run with a group in Atlanta yet, but I run with people every Saturday morning. The five-mile loop around beautiful Stone Mountain gets crowded early, and the joggers/walkers/dogs/cyclists are as interesting to behold as the birds, carvings and flowers.

So today, in an effort to avoid a human traffic jam, I jumped off the sidewalk and ran on the ground near the mountain side of the trail. It was a mistake. I tripped over a tree root and crash… bam… in slow motion I thought, “I can’t avoid this fall.” And I tumbled, rolled and stopped.

“Are you OK?” two women asked in unison.

“Fine,” I smiled, knowing they wanted to be on their way. But I wanted to cry, “No! Come help me up!” I knew the quicker I rose, the better I’d be. I had dirt from shoulder to ankle on one side and blood trickling off my elbow and knee. I was unaware of it, though, until the next woman I passed asked, “Did you fall?”

I smiled again, “I wrestled a big bear.” She was past me then, but I imagined she smiled, too.

Then my worry became that my husband, who was walking the loop in the opposite direction, would come upon me before I could wash up. He gets crazy when I am clumsy and threatens to make me quit running. For Life. But I finished the loop and found a restroom to wash the evidence away before I encountered him. He didn’t even notice anything amiss. I ran another loop, a little slower than usual, starting to feel the damage inflicted, mostly from trying to stop the fall.

I’m scraped, a little swollen, and I’ll probably be sore tomorrow. But you know, I’ve had worse falls and worse abrasions. God took care of me. I could've rolled into a patch of poison oak that appears to be growing with abandon at the mountain. And I'm so allergic to it.

Aren’t falls like life? They offer many lessons: We need to be a little more careful when we get off the regular path. And perhaps when someone offers help, we can be quicker to accept. It might be smarter to run with friends... even husbands. But the biggest lesson of all… we will fall sometime--whether it’s a death in the family, job loss, car crash or illness--but will we get back up on the trail and keep going?

We can do it with God's help.

"For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up." Ecclesiastes 4:10 NASB

Running Advice for the Road of Life

Here's what makes runs work for me in Atlanta: I speed with the momentum down the hills and when the path takes me up the side of a mountain, I know that it's OK to walk if I need to. The uphills are getting easier with practice.

So, in life, when relationships, work, school and physical fitness are going well, take the momentum and do as much as you can. When you're challenged by obstacles, know that it is OK to take shorter steps and go slower.

Every life has its peaks and valleys. A financial coach told me recently that we will all be hit by crisis every 15 years. We can prepare for the hard times mentally and spiritually, so that when we are tested by the high hills, our ability to tackle them comes easier.

Cheerleaders

"Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." Hebrews 12:1, NASB

At the Cowtown Marathon (I ran the Half) recently, my friend Annetta (she is the thin one on the right) ran alongside and my family cheered. And my sweet husband took these pictures. Talk about encouragement! My friends joked that my dad now has to come to every race. Who can you cheer for today?