Back - again!

Back on January 3rd I wrote, "Today I ran 10 miles in under 80 minutes... the first time since October 2007. A good feeling - this is the level at which I'm getting a bit fitter, more in control of the running so that huffing, puffing and chugging increasingly become a thing of the past (except on the really long ones!)".

Well, today is a day I've waited some time for. Today I ran 10 miles in under 80 minutes (79:48) for the first time since March this year. In the meantime, a few things intervened. Mainly a metatarsal stress fracture, but also runner's knee, burglary and illness. God is good - those 8 months since March have seemed long! (My record, set in 2007, is 73:01, so there's still some way until I'm really back to my best!).

The Bible tells us that "the righteous man stumbles seven times, and rises up again" (Proverbs 24:16). Life in a fallen world is full of setbacks. I was motivated to go through them one by one by one by one until today - but that was just in some ordinary, temporal thing. Of course, the Bible verse is speaking of higher things. There are setbacks in the Christian life and in ministry. No question about that. The question is if we have the will and the trust in God's goodness to keep pressing forward even to reach the point we were at or hoped to be at yonks ago. It's either that or falling and staying there. "The righteous man never stumbles" is not in the Bible; "the righteous man stumbles seven times, and rises up again" is. If we can do this in lower things, why not in the things that are eternal too? How are you doing?