Happy New Year!
2025 has begun, and we are off again running or rolling into a new month full of ambitions, goals, and revolutions! Whenever I think of January, I think of the Olympics and the relay race they run. Teams compete against each other, running as fast as they can to pass the baton to the next runner, who takes a precise position to run fast enough but not too fast and not too slow, where they fall behind other runners. The sprint is thrilling, and I can imagine such a rush of emotions. Before you know it, you turn to hand off your baton and leave it to the next teammate to do the rest. But all you did in that run wasn’t for nothing but to get to the next part of the race, and without that first sprint, you couldn’t pass off the baton to move forward.
Last year, I felt this way because I was moving from Oklahoma to Colorado, packing up my life to start another one that used to be familiar, and now I have to start again. As soon as I got there, my job started, and shortly after that, I’d be moving yet again to a different house than initially planned and transitioning all my things to make the move all over again! The easy part, well, I guess the positive, was that I had family and friends to help, and it ended up being the right house God had for me, but no small task getting to my destination. Instead, it felt like I sprinted forward, ready to pass on the baton to a teammate, and instead, I kept getting the baton and having to keep running! I’m so glad we don’t have to run alone, but sometimes, we still choose to run alone instead of passing our baton of worries, struggles, and feelings to the one who can carry us to the end.
Why am I saying all of this?
How many of us went from the holidays back to reality way too quickly, or even if we didn’t choose it? All the calendar talks and school syllabus start flowing, and you realize you went from sprinting to non-stop running without even realizing it, and now you are overwhelmed with last year and this year! Here’s my advice.
STOP!
STOP SPRINTING!
Take a deep breath and slow down that heart rate.
You will wear yourself out before you even make it to February.
Just like a relay race, life isn’t supposed to be lived on hype, adrenaline, or resolutions. It should be embraced one mile at a time, and we should pace ourselves so that when it’s time to pass the baton, we can speed up and slow down as needed.
Don’t pressure yourself to make goals that sound good but are unreachable. Instead, reach a personal goal. You can pass that baton on when you get your goal and start running with another desire or dream. But the most important thing about a relay race is this: Your teammate is going to be ready and running with you to achieve that end goal, and that is Jesus. Don’t sprint to prove something to the crowd; run so that you can go the distance you’ve paced for yourself to see that Victory in your life.
Embracing the race you have run this far and continuing with what is now is hard, but God wants us to keep moving forward through Him.
Matthew 19:26 says, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
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