our life in fayetteville...: What a Ride...

Whoa...time is certainly flying by this year! While we have taken a brief hiatus from posting recently that is certainly not because of a lack of major events happening in our lives.

One of the major happenings recently was my first ever triathlon. After 5 months of training on June 10th I competed in the Lawrence, KS Ironman 70.3. It was a 1.2 mile swim, a 56 mile bike, and a 13.1 mile run. It was something I had dedicated a significant amount of time to training for but really didn't know what to expect.

What I did know is that throughout the process we joined with 99Balloons and one of their international partners to raise funds for a ministry named Ekisa, for special needs children in Uganda. 99Balloons is an amazing organization based here in Fayetteville which we have been blessed to be a part of. We initially sought out to raise $600 for the orphanage to start a school, and through the generous blessings of friends and family raised over $2,000! We were able to provide the orphanage with funding for the school, two new goats for fresh milk, an Apple iPad and apps, and other operating funds. It was truly amazing to see what God worked through this endeavor.

The race was a wonderful journey in itself - and one I'm not soon to forget. The night before the race a wonderful friend, and spiritual mentor, Ross Cully sent me these words of encouragement “seek His face for strength, call upon His name when in trial, He is the great I Am, and He is inside of you – get out of the way and unleash”. I spent quite a bit of time on Saturday night praying and focusing on those words and trying to frame my mind around the blessing it was to be able to compete in an event like this.

As I entered the swim portion of the race – to describe the situation as a major panic would be completely underselling it. As soon as the gun went off I literally had a major meltdown, given this was my first time swimming in open water and with other people around me. As people were kicking me in the head, water going in my mouth with every wave, I lost my mind. Within the first five minutes of the start of the race – I was drowning. I was taking on water, panicking, losing energy, losing breath, and in that moment every negative thought I could summon was in my head. How many people I let down, how embarrassing this was, how to write an email to the Ekisa donors telling them I made it only .2 miles of the swim before having to bail, how this will be just another notch in the ‘see I told you you aren’t an athlete’ belt, and on and on.

I spent five to ten minutes trying not to die and just move forward. With each “stroke” it only got worse – the water was incredibly choppy and I was getting pushed extremely far out of the course. Finally, I saw a race kayak which is made for people to either hang on to for a bit or take them back to shore. I remember so clearly, in that moment of panic, thinking “okay, that’s it, I’ll just swim over to the kayak and call it a day – I just wasn’t meant to do this – I’m not good enough for this sport”.

It was almost simultaneous – the next thought in my head was “seek His face for strength, call upon His name when in trial, He is the great I Am, and He is inside of you – get out of the way and unleash”. It was in that moment I turned to God and just asked him if this is what he meant to happen. I asked for His strength, His power, His glory. To describe what happened next in words doesn’t do it justice. The next feeling I had can only be described as an out of body experience. I suddenly started swimming as if I knew what I was doing – my stroke was long, lean, clean – I could see in front of me, the water calmed, and I was confidently on my way. I remember quite often during the swim thinking – this is not me doing this – this is AMAZING to see how I am being carried through this water.

The next 70 miles of swim, bike, run were unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. There were times on the bike/run where I felt like I was actually able to feel like God had taken over – like I was looking down on the Holy Spirit finishing a half ironman using my body as a vehicle. Each time along the way where I expected additional trial, pain, exhaustion, etc. it just never came. Even my body’s recovery has been beyond my expectations. It was, well, indescribable.

I couldn’t help but think throughout the race what a great analogy for life and it’s trials this was. It was at my darkest hour, my toughest moment (of the race), just when my mind decided to give up, that I turned to Him and unleashed the Holy Spirit – and he happily took over and carried me through to the finish while I was along for the ride.