Philippians 2:14-16
Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky as you hold firmly to the word of life. And then I will be able to boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor in vain.

When my son tells me I look tired, it usually means I’m looking a bit rough about the edges and he’s pretty sure it’s not entirely related to his latest antics. And that would be true of this particular day when he mentioned my less-than-refreshed appearance. This day, my computer was melting down, projects were due, we were late to class, we hit every stop light and we were out of chocolate because someone ate it. Without me. Not only that but it looked like I was going to have to skip my run as there just wasn’t time. I was tired but still craved a 5 mile run.

I like running. Even when I don’t like running, I like running. When I first began training for races back in junior high, I found that being positive carried me a lot farther and faster than complaining about the heat or exhaustion or anything. Actually, on our track team it was taboo to complain and I noticed that the best athletes usually didn’t complain. There were one or two who did but you wondered how much better they could have been if they were not so mopey. Basically, if you like racing and improving, you must also like the training or you’ll be miserable most of the time. For many runners, one relatively short race can encompass months or even years of training.

That said, I do know how helpful it is to work though a difficult time by talking about it. But I believe there is a difference between complaining and discussing an injury, illness, or other hardship in hopes of finding a solution or relieving it just by letting others know about it. A hopeful tone is vital to keeping a topic from turning into a complaint which is the fine line I’m walking here by listing all the things that were wrong with my bumpy day!

Being in track and cross country set me up to be pretty good about not complaining during training and since training encompasses a small chunk of my day, it’s manageable to fight the grumbling just that long. But Philippians says “Do everything without grumbling”. It seems our tough days can be great training for our most difficult life events. We don’t always know when or what major event is coming but we should try to be ready. That won’t happen by giving up on a day. That would be like skipping a tough workout. In my current running schedule, there are three to four tough workouts per week. If I gave up on that many days a week, I might be able to get through the race but there’d be no shining “like stars in the sky” going on.

I decided to tackle the mildly stressful Monday like I would intervals at the track on a 90 degree morning. It was actually a chilly grey day in the Midwest — perfect for that 5 miler. I applied the same effort into the rest of the day as I do while in the middle of a run. Instead of wailing about how much I hate cat barf on the carpet…well, never mind. I hate cat barf on the carpet. But when patience started slipping away, I’d check it and ask God to help me focus on something better.  That day turned around as well as many others since. I also happened to get my run in.

Happy Running!