Running Without Distraction

Last week my oldest son, Elijah, participated in a fun run at his school. He was suppose to run a mile though the parents of his class all knew that many in the class wouldn't make it a full mile. Some of the young students likely don't have what it takes physically to run that far yet. The few that may be able to physically run a mile may quit early simply because their attention spans aren't very long at this point and they may...just like me...get bored with running. Elijah finished 85% of his mile...but I have no idea if he lacked physical maturity required to run that long or if he just got bored. In fact, no one really knows why he didn't complete it because he was distracted.

See, we have always stressed to our sons that they drink water, water is good for them, water is the healthiest drink, drink water instead of colas, etc. At times we have even celebrated and made a big deal about our boys drinking a good bit of water. While we still stand by those things, it may have been good for us to explain to Elijah that there are stipulations. That is to say, sometimes are better than others to drink excessive quanities of water. It goes without saying that during a run is not the time to become enthusiastic about drinking water...or anything else for that matter.

Having never run in a race like this one before, Elijah wasn't expecting people to offer him cups of water. Being the big fan of water and thinking it is incredibly cool that people are standing around with free water for him it only seemed logical to drink water as it was offered to him. Of course I am not inside his head but I can imagine that Elijah became so distracted by the water that he lost focus of the real goal. It seems that the very thing designed to help him reach his goal actually became his focus and it caused him to fall short. As most of you know, too much water before or during a workout leads to cramps and poor performance. Poor Elijah.

That's not the end of the story...to me anyway. As is my custom I have been pondering that whole scenario for the past week and wondering which areas of my life have become out of focus? Has anything in this world that God designed to be of assistance to me actually become my goal instead of God? In short, has anything been offered to me during my race of life that will prevent me from finishing well?

If I were to write about the areas in life that need more clarity, this paragraph would go on for way too long. If I were to consider every single thing that becomes interesting or exciting to me...but in the end isn't good for me at all...well, I don't have that much time. Time only allows me to pray that I will find balance and proper priorities in every aspect of life. I pray the same for you. May we never get so water-logged that we lose the ability to run and finish well.