Wisdom and Strength

I love to hear my kids pray. As much as I wish I could say we are super spiritual and that we pray together every morning, or that I can hear them praying aloud from their bedrooms, that would simply not be the truth. However, I do get to hear one of them pray aloud each week in our family devotional and meeting. It’s the highlight of my week, especially with a few of them, the ones who tend to guard their thoughts and feelings a little more closely than the ones who share every thought that crosses their minds (KELSEY). When they pray, I get a glimpse into their heart and their relationship with God and often really profound things are said in this conversation with their Father.

Back in the fall, Roman was leading us in prayer and one of the requests on the list were the cross country meets for four of five sons and daughters. I will never forget what he said…. 

He prayed, “Lord, give us wisdom to run a good race and the strength to finish.”

Admittedly, I am not a runner. If I were praying about a cross country meet, my prayer would just go, “Please let me survive to the finish line and not be too embarrassed.” As I thought about his prayer, I thought about the difference in a runner and a …. let’s just be gentle and call me a “non-runner”. 

Until I parented runners, I didn’t realize that wisdom went into running. I just assumed you run as hard and as fast as you can until you can’t anymore. I didn’t know about pacing and about reading your competition and about training and about the mental game of running. It takes wisdom to run a good race. 

How often are we living our lives in a “just let me survive to the finish line and not be too embarrassed” sort of way? How many Sunday nights do I look at the week ahead and think, “I just need to survive these next three days and it will ease up”? How many mornings do I wake and mentally calculate the number of hours till I can get back in bed? How many days do I just get through, waiting for a weekend? How many obligations and events do I “just survive and hope to not be too embarrassed”? Is that living? Or is that just surviving?

The wisdom in running our race can be found in His Word and in time spent with Him. What sets us apart from the world, the world that is just surviving, if that’s all we are doing too? I’m afraid that too often, we lose sight of the fact that we are to run our race with wisdom. We are called to spend time listening to the message He has for us, to apply it to our lives, and to live our days with purpose and intention, with wisdom and integrity. 

I don’t know if Roman was thinking about the connection between running with wisdom and finishing with strength, but they are closely linked. The strength to finish comes from the wisdom with which he runs. If he runs wisely, pacing himself and keeping his mental game in check, the strength for the finish will be there. But if he pushes himself harder than his capacity and lets his competitors get in his head, the finish will be a gasping disappointment.

Nehemiah is one of my favorite books of the Bible. I don’t know what the draw is that my heart feels to that book, but I have loved it since my rediscovery of it as an adult. It’s one that I like to go back to and read every few months. This last time, back in December, the words of Nehemiah 6:9 jumped off the page at me: “For they wanted to frighten us, thinking, ‘Their hands will drop from the work, and it will not be done.’ But now, O God, strengthen my hands.” 

What a SIMPLE prayer… Strengthen my hands. Nehemiah was building a wall while fielding threats and rumors and dissension in his ranks. My kids were running 3.1 miles while fighting their bodies and their minds and the terrain and their opponents. You and I, we might be battling anxiety or bad news or family dynamics or difficult people bent on making our lives challenging or maybe just the day to day mundane tasks at home and at work that never seem to end. But no matter which camp we find ourselves, a simple prayer for strength will spur us on.

He longs for us to run this race of life with wisdom, the wisdom found in Him and through His Word and relationship. He longs to grant us the strength to do more than just survive, but to LIVE with joy and contentment and as a beacon of His light to those around us. So today, let that be the whisper of your heart to your Father: “Give us the wisdom to run a good race and the strength to finish. And while you’re at it, strengthen my hands.”