Run Your Own Race

By Crystal Drake

Picture this…an almost 60 year old, out of shape granny trying to compete against a very physically fit 12 year old granddaughter in an obstacle course race!  Yep, you guessed it – hysterical and embarrassing.  This past weekend, I found myself at a park with my daughter-in-love and two granddaughters.  My son’s very creative and athletic wife, decided to create an obstacle course that included climbing ladders, ascending rock walls, slides, running through deep sand, etc..  As I sat on the bench and watched the three of them having a blast by timing each other and then competing against their own times, I decided I should get involved.  (Oh no…what was I thinking?!)  My first mishap was getting stuck trying to get my adult body through the narrow opening designed for a child on the first twisting slide.  Next, I fell face first onto the pavement while trying to run through what seemed like two feet of soft sand and skinned my knee and the palm of my hand.  On my second try, I flew so fast down the second slide I forgot to catch myself with my feet and landed on my bottom – hard!!!  I was laughing at myself uncontrollably, so they had to stop the timer long enough for me to contain my embarrassed laughter so that I could continue the race.  Then, I got stuck on the rock wall and couldn’t get over.  I’m not sure I’ve ever felt so uncoordinated in my life!  My time was more than twice that of my daughter and granddaughter.  I was the epitome of BAD! 

However, there is a silver lining because I did learn something that day. At one point in our adventure, my daughter-in-law decided to run alongside of our four year old to cheer her on and ‘let her win’.  As they were maneuvering through the obstacles, my granddaughter kept commenting on how her mom was doing it wrong, or needed to slow down and once, when her mom was ‘behind’, she actually did a “na, na, boo, boo” facial gesture that included the use of her tongue!  She was obviously very proud of herself and was oblivious to the fact that her gracious mama was allowing her to get ahead.  As I listened to her mom reprimand her at the end of the race about not worrying what the other competitor was doing, but to focus on her own race, I was hit with a profound realization.  That’s exactly what we do as adults.  We worry entirely too much about the people around us and how they are running their race, and then, we compare it to our own.  What a mistake.  I learned along time ago from one of my favorite poems, the Desiderata, that comparison is a lose-lose scenario.  If we think we’re doing better than the other person, we become haughty or vain.  If we think we’re doing worse, then we become angry, disappointed or ashamed of our own progress.  So either way, there isn’t a positive outcome. 

Proverbs 14:30 says, “A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.”  Sometimes thoughts like these run around in my mind:  “Why is God blessing them so much?  Why isn’t God blessing me like He’s blessing them?  They don’t even serve God and look how successful they are!”  Am I the only one who has these terrible thoughts?  I doubt it, because I think our flesh is always looking at things from a selfish point of view.  But then I take control over my thoughts and begin to think differently, I look at the blessings I DO have and I realize that God has blessed me exponentially more than I deserve.  We shouldn’t begrudge other people’s successes.  We don’t always know how hard they’ve worked or what they’ve had to sacrifice to appear so blessed.  We need to concentrate on our own race!  It doesn’t matter if a four year old can beat your time on the obstacle course or if you get stuck on the rock wall – just keep going until the end and be proud of yourself for getting off the bench.  Thank you Erin for the reminder.