Endurance: Faith Was My Missing Piece

3 minute read, 3 minute video

You have two friends and they both go on the same trip. They come back to you with stories to tell. The version shared by one friend is full of highlights, new memories & experiences, with every potential setback painted with a silver-lining. The version shared by your other friend is the complete opposite with every detail highlighted about their unmet expectations unfulfilled desires. Same journey, yet completely different experience.  

That is the same difference I have felt with developing a faith life behind & beyond my adventures. 

Arguably, the hardest part of setting off on an endurance challenge is failure. The bigger the challenge the bigger that potential becomes for failure. When you are challenging your limits, failure becomes a real possibility. What happens then?

If you try enough adventures, sooner or later, it happens. My greatest “failure” was during a non-stop 3,300-mile bicycle race called Race Across America. It was an attempt to break a world record, but instead I broke myself.

Check out this video about how success was found despite the failure.

Failing without faith is hard. In the past, I would be consumed with feeling like I left myself & others down. I would question if I tried hard enough or if I should even keep trying. Striving for perfection in endurance & achievement was an endless battle that left me arriving at one mirage to the next. Even with successful endurance feats, there was a sense of loss. My identity was closely tied to a particular achievement and without the goal, I felt lost. 

Here’s what happened when faith became part of my life. 

God: first. 

Endurance: second. 

I thought the problem was “endurance,” and therefore the solution was to entirely get rid of it, and so I committed to not doing any endurance challenges for a year. I learned that the problem wasn’t endurance, per se, but it was making endurance my “idol” or “god”. When anything but God comes first, even gifts & talents can become destructive and damaging. I had a gift with endurance but didn’t know how to steward it. Once the order was in a place it needed to be, endurance challenges & adventures transformed in a way that I never anticipated. They were filled with more joy, peace, and contentment. 

Knowing God and who He is all about also gave me a sense of peace knowing that His love doesn’t change depending on my success or failure.

Here’s why: God gave me my every ability. If it turned out that I failed to complete my latest challenge running 138-miles nonstop across Maine, would God be disappointed in me?

Nope. Nadda. Absolutely not. 

God doesn’t judge me on abilities He didn’t give me. I may judge myself and feel a sense of personal failure, especially if and when I care more about pleasing and serving myself than serving God and trusting His plan.

I used to believe that a Christian life was about what you give up or lose, but now I see how I was wrong. It’s about how much God desires to add to our lives and give to us for our good. Run or not, I have nothing to lose.

Running is a Matter of Faith

1 minute read, 8 minute video

It was a summer night and I was spending it with a dear friend, Megan, at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. We were strolling through exhibits the same way you might leisurely leaf through a magazine until Lucy fossil caught our eye. We dive right into one of my all-time favorite question: “What do you think?”. 

The truth was, I had no clue but leaned into my own inclination to think “sure, anything is possible”. Little did I know how much the conversation would have on my understanding of who God is, versus the one I knew growing up. Megan shared her Christian faith and how it is much more than religion or a set of beliefs used to worship God, but a relationship.

Boy, did I have some questions! 

My curiosity was awakened, similar to how I felt the first time I learned about ocean rowing — I just had to learn more. 

Books were read. 

Sermons were watched. 

Questions were answered.

The undeniable pull I felt couldn’t be stopped, and acceptance and belief came into my heart.

I believe! 

What does that really mean?

I am constantly learning what it means to put God first in all things. But with endurance, it has been truly transformational. Before accepting Jesus, my worth came from the world and now my worth is rooted in something much deeper than the world can offer — a belief in God. The endurance adventures continue on, only this time with joy rather than fear, eagerness rather than anxiety, and out of love rather needing to prove lovability.

To learn more about my journey from doubter to believer, here is a video from my local church, Eastpoint Church.