Run, Kristin, Run!

Running the race of life is hard! Running to obtain the prize can make every step worth it.

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Run Kristin Run 

Some of you more mature people out there may Remember the movie Forrest Gump, a 1994 movie starring Tom Hanks.  There was a one liner, that even I remember, because I was a young 26 years old, and anytime anyone would run.  They would in jest say: Run Forrest Run.  
You see, in the movie, the fictional Forrest has an undetermined intellectual and physical disability, but due to his mothers encouragement and love, he never thought of himself as disadvantaged.  He lived an extremely full life becoming a football star, fighting in Vietnam, captured a shrimp boat, and experiences all kinds of moments throughout American history, including meeting celebrities like Elvis Presley, John Lennon and several US senators and Us. Presidents. 
The famous one-liner is born when Forrest proposes to his lifelong friend and sweetheart Jenny.  To deal with her rejection, he starts running.  In the movie, he tells a man sitting on a bus stop bench 

“That day, for no particular reason, I decided to go for a little run” I ran to the end of the road. When I got there I thought I might run to the end of town. When I got there I thought maybe I’d just run across Greenbow County. I figured since I run this far, maybe I’d just run across the great state of Alabama. That’s what I did.”
Forrest continues to explain he just didn’t stop. At one point a news reporter covers his fourth time across the U.S.
“I ran clear across Alabama,” Forrest said. “No particular reason, I just kept on going. I ran clear to the ocean. When I got there, I figured since I’d gone this far, I might as well turn around and just keep on going. When I got to another ocean, I figured since I’d gone this far, might as well turn back, keep right on going.  In the end, Gump  runs for three years, two months, 14 days and 16 hours, and crosses the United States almost five times before deciding that it's finally time to go home. 
I used to love to run.  And I was fast….Just ask my kids who would be happy to tell you all about the box of blue ribbons I still treasure from my 6th grade track meet.   But in all seriousness, Don’t you remember the freedom of running fast as a child.  It was so liberating and empowering.  I even used to dream of running fast through fields, up until even my subconscious knew it was only a dream and that this body and the 6 knee surgeries between 2 knees was beyond running like that.  But boy, I still remember that feeling.  So exhilarating. 

I’m sure that’s why so many people run.  It’s not only good for the body, but good for the mind and soul. 

There are a lot of scriptures that make reference to running.  

In D&C 89:20 In reference to the Word of Wisdom, we are promised that by adiding this word of wisdom, we shall run and not be weary and shall walk and not faint.

1st Corinthians 9:24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain. I really like that one, because it speaks to me.  What is the prize I’m running the race of life for? 

But my favorite is found in 

Hebrews 12:1, when the apolstle paul told Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us.


I believe there is an entire sermon, or mountain of content that could be derived if we just blended some of the words of those two scriptures, but that would be personal interpretation…. But just for the sake of this episode, let’s give it a try. 

Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, that we may obtain the prize we are running for. 

What is the race?  It is the journey through life.  What is the prize? I think you’d all agree, it is the gift of Eternal life and celestial glory, with our families. 

Sounds easy enough in theory doesn’t it?  

Our Son Drake was a sprinter.  He was really fast, Even held a couple of records.  When he got home from his mission, he was a collegiate sprinter for Utah Valley University.  He get’s it from his momma….He so does not.  He gets it from his daddy, but I like the other idea better, so that’s my story and I’m sticking to it! Needless to say, we got to sit through a lot of track meets from the time he was in the 6th grade. 

I was always amazed by the long distance runners.  Those who ran the mile and 2 mile and to honest, It never ceased to perplex me, as we’d watch them cross the finish line only to find their way and collapse intot the  nearest garbage can to puke their guts out.  Why?  Why would anyone want to do that to themselves?  One of Drakes friend Chris Brower was, and still is, a darling kid.  He was one of those long distance runners, and I asked him that one time.  I will never forget his answer one time in the bleachers at a stake track meet.  

He told me it was awesome to know that you could actually do it. 

He could do it…I never could.  

This race through life is just as tough probably tougher than out-of-shape-me, running a long distance race.  And yet, we’re being told to run with patience the race that is set before us.  

This race, unlike the track of any high school or college, is riddled with detours, hills and valleys, treacherous gulleys and mountainous peaks.  It can feel as hot as the desert and as frigid as the arctic, in fact, sometimes this race feels more like an obstacle course that can’t always be run, but much of the time is barely inched through, or limped across.  

Sometimes we feel like for every 10 steps we move forward, we’re pushed 20 steps back and occasionally we may find ourselves not only collapsing into the nearest garbage can, but feeling completely dumped headfirst into it, with doubts of ever being able to crawl out, let alone finishing the race at all.

Run the Race with patience, by Kari Hafen in the latest issue of the Liahona, I loved her words. “I know that being patient helps the process of healing to happen. Running the race of life requires us to overcome obstacles put on our path. By holding on to hope in Christ, pressing forward with a steadfastness in Christ, and moving on with His perfect love surrounding us, we will, in the Lord’s timing, be made free!"

For those of you who run marathons, you have my utmost respect!  My daughter in law Abby’s mother Tiffany is one of those amazing people.  Inspired by her mom, Abby and her dad just completed their first half-marathon.  Our other daughter in law is training for her first as well.  It still perplexes me! Anyone who knows anything, knows that you can’t run a marathon without training.  

And I think part of the beauty of this concept is that this race through life gives us the perfect training we need to progress, learn, and grow so that we can eventually cross that mortal finish line with family cheering us on from the bleachers of our lives and those coaxing us on through the veils in heaven.  

But it’s so very very hard!  We are watching loved one’s battle cancer, and emotional illness.  We are all fighting discouragement and loneliness at times.  Depression, anxiety, unforgiveness, financial stresses, natural disasters, wars and well, I guess they’re really not rumors of wars any more.  It can feel grueling to keep our heads up sometimes and force ourselves to keep putting one foot in front of the other, let alone continue running.  

Every time I think of life as a race, and feel incapable of running any longer, I think of the poem the Race by DH Groberg.  

I may have even shared it here before, but I feel like its worth re-sharing. 


The Race
By D.H. Groberg
Whenever I start to hang my head in front of failure’s face,
    my downward fall is broken by the memory of a race.
A children’s race, young boys, young men; how I remember well,
    excitement sure, but also fear, it wasn’t hard to tell.
They all lined up so full of hope, each thought to win that race
    or tie for first, or if not that, at least take second place.
Their parents watched from off the side, each cheering for their son,
    and each boy hoped to show his folks that he would be the one.
The whistle blew and off they flew, like chariots of fire,
    to win, to be the hero there, was each young boy’s desire.
One boy in particular, whose dad was in the crowd,
    was running in the lead and thought “My dad will be so proud.”
But as he speeded down the field and crossed a shallow dip,
    the little boy who thought he’d win, lost his step and slipped.
Trying hard to catch himself, his arms flew everyplace,
    and midst the laughter of the crowd he fell flat on his face.
As he fell, his hope fell too; he couldn’t win it now.
    Humiliated, he just wished to disappear somehow.
But as he fell his dad stood up and showed his anxious face,
    which to the boy so clearly said, “Get up and win that race!”
He quickly rose, no damage done, behind a bit that’s all,
    and ran with all his mind and might to make up for his fall.
So anxious to restore himself, to catch up and to win,
    his mind went faster than his legs. He slipped and fell again.
He wished that he had quit before with only one disgrace.
    “I’m hopeless as a runner now, I shouldn’t try to race.”
But through the laughing crowd he searched and found his father’s face
    with a steady look that said again, “Get up and win that race!”
So he jumped up to try again, ten yards behind the last.
    “If I’m to gain those yards,” he thought, “I’ve got to run real fast!”
Exceeding everything he had, he regained eight, then ten...
    but trying hard to catch the lead, he slipped and fell again.
Defeat! He lay there silently. A tear dropped from his eye.
    “There’s no sense running anymore! Three strikes I’m out! Why try?
I’ve lost, so what’s the use?” he thought. “I’ll live with my disgrace.”
    But then he thought about his dad, who soon he’d have to face.
“Get up,” an echo sounded low, “you haven’t lost at all,
    for all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall.
Get up!” the echo urged him on, “Get up and take your place!
    You were not meant for failure here! Get up and win that race!”
So, up he rose to run once more, refusing to forfeit,
    and he resolved that win or lose, at least he wouldn’t quit.
So far behind the others now, the most he’d ever been,
    still he gave it all he had and ran like he could win.
Three times he’d fallen stumbling, three times he rose again.
    Too far behind to hope to win, he still ran to the end.
They cheered another boy who crossed the line and won first place,
    head high and proud and happy -- no falling, no disgrace.
But, when the fallen youngster crossed the line, in last place,
    the crowd gave him a greater cheer for finishing the race.
And even though he came in last with head bowed low, unproud,
    you would have thought he’d won the race, to listen to the crowd.
And to his dad he sadly said, “I didn’t do so well.”
    “To me, you won,” his father said. “You rose each time you fell.”
And now when things seem dark and bleak and difficult to face,
    the memory of that little boy helps me in my own race.
For all of life is like that race, with ups and downs and all.
    And all you have to do to win is rise each time you fall.
And when depression and despair shout loudly in my face,
    another voice within me says, “Get up and win that race!”

I bear witness that the voice within us that keeps calling to us to stay in the race when we want to quit, our biggest cheerleader and greatest fan Is our Savior and big brother Jesus Christ.  

When we run with patience the race that is before us, regardless of it’s degree of difficulty, He will be right by our side.  He will run right next to us and help us obtain the prize that is worth every step, and every struggle, and is the very reason we keep running.  

When I remember that these legs don’t like to run, and I choose to walk and even then, feel tired from all the exertion, I can almost imagine my Lord encouraging me like the fans in Forrest Gump….

Run, Kristin Run!