Walk Run Soar: Discovering God's Presence on Life's Trail Sýnishorn

Running through Life’s Hurdles

Read James 1:2-4

Coach Churchill, my high school track-and-field coach, mostly had me run middle-distance races until this one particular track meet. Coach walked up to me and said, “Hey, how would you like to run hurdles today?” I raised an eyebrow at him. Coach Churchill, whom we fondly called “Church,” had a way of pushing me and challenging me to attempt new things. “I’ve never run hurdles before,” I responded.

“I know,” Church said. “I’ll teach you.”

That was the day I fell in love with the 300-meter hurdles.

Church gave me a quick lesson. I practiced a few times, and then I went to the starting line. There wasn’t time to get too nervous. There were only a handful of girls in the race that day. I’m sure I didn’t have great form or strategy in that race, but I immediately fell in love with the challenge. I loved the feeling of soaring over those hurdles and the thrill of coming from behind to win the race.

After that, I worked with another teacher who ran hurdles in college. Mr. Kritzberg taught me that I had to learn to run through the hurdles, not over them. In other words, he didn’t want me to jump over them. He wanted me to keep a steady cadence and lift my legs slightly to get over them. Then I was supposed to snap my lead leg back down and keep running. If I spent too much time focusing on the hurdle itself or worrying about falling, then I would sacrifice my speed. The goal was to simply graze over the hurdles and keep my eyes on the finish line.

Hurdles are like the obstacles and challenges we face in our life. In James 1:2, we are encouraged to consider it joy when we face trials in our lives because this produces perseverance. Sometimes it’s hard to approach life’s hurdles with joy. Maybe you’ve recently lost your job or you’re navigating tension in your marriage. Maybe you’ve been traversing infertility or battling depression. These are big life hurdles.

When we see hurdles in the lane in front us, we can get caught up in thinking about the worst-case scenarios and the hardships to come. We can start to obsess about how the race will turn out instead of taking that courageous step forward.

Even if you’re not physically running over hurdles this week, there are hurdles we all must face in our training, our races, and our lives. Friend, don’t focus on the obstacle. Keep your eyes on the horizon and run through. Let perseverance finish its work and carry you to the finish line.

FAITH STEP: Jot down a list of some of the hurdles in your life right now. Visualize yourself running through those hurdles in a race. Ask God to grow perseverance in you during this season.