It’s Time To Run Your Best Lap Yet.

Over the weekend I spent some time in Manchester, taking the city in as I hope to make the move to properly leave home, into what now feels like a confirmation of the next chapter of my life.

Let me explain.

So before I decide what city I make a move to, or I guess the metric of how I measure where I should be, often comes from my heart’s position. I will travel to a place, feel out the city, connect with the people and listen to the voice inside my heart— Or should I say stillness that follows.

This Sunday I had decided to go to a local church as I believed God would give me a confirmation on whether this place is for me or not, and he spoke. The message on that Sunday was one which— If I can so selfishly claim— was written in the heavens specifically for me. So today I hope to pass on the hope that I found in that same message.

It’s Time To Run Your Best Lap Yet.

Obviously, if you’re a real one, then you know why I feel like this is for me… like Lap… For Mr200m??? Come on!

It’s incredibly funny how God communicates with you. It’s more so special for me because I believe that through all my sporting dedications, I’ve found that between those spikes and the rough rubber, God has so perfectly made himself known to me. Throughout my life, I’ve continually seen how he communicates with me in the places I find myself, from the people around me to the simple nature that surrounds me (Roms 1:20).

I remember walking a few minutes late into this service and feeling immediately like I had eyes on me. Now I’m used to walking into rooms with eyes that know me, but this felt different. It’s almost as if I felt visible to the heavens again, something that for a long time I had been praying to feel again. For over a year I found myself in what seemed like a separation. I often felt invisible to God, stuck in my sin, and helpless. Nonetheless, I tarried each day, standing back up every time I stumbled, and kept a good sense of duty even when I didn’t feel like it.

As the pastor began to preach he began with 2 timothy 4. The message was themed around the impact of lockdown, and how for some, they left more slothful, for others the same and for a select few, charged and improved. He opened up this verse and began reading.

I began crying.

I really didn’t expect to cry truly I didn’t even get why I was crying, but as I sat there I began to gain a little insight. Remember when I said that this sermon was for me? Well, this was just another confirmation of the fleeting thought as I heard the running commentary and allegory that the pastor had going on.

He read on breaking down what Paul was really saying when he wrote to Timothy, and he reached verse 6, and this is where it broke me.

[6] For I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time for my departure is near. [7] I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. [8] Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day—and not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing.

first of all, God has kept me on this verse for the last year or so, and I’ve just never been able to move past it. I decided this time last year that this has to be my default as a Christian. I found that there was an essence of passivity in my dedication to Christ, so this became my Goal— To be poured out.

As I sat there tearing up as I deeped the revelation again, the pastor continued to speak. He asked one question — Do you know what season you’re in?

I answered in my heart. I’m not sure of what to call the season, but I wanted to feel God’s presence as I did before. I was taken back to those years in which my walk was arguably more flawless. Like you know those years when your level of excellence was just a different tier? I envied those days as I reflected on the entanglements I had not only allowed, but also fed in my life.

The pastor opened to a Hebrews 12

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us

he went back and forth between these two verses and the waterworks just kept flowing.

He highlighted two things.

1. There is a crown in store.

2. You can’t run a race from the stands,

As he spoke about how beautiful it is that our sins are literally behind Jesus, like literally when God looks at us, he sees something he’s proud of, but of course what we do in our lives— The paths we take are not just in vain, but at the end, there’s a reward.

I just kept crying.

Do you often feel so invisible in your life? Like you’re working, you’re pushing, and it feels lonely and exhausting. Heck, you’ve lived a life where you’ve just about lost everything you loved, there’s a crown for you. There’s a crown that awaits you— I’m writing this to remind you of just what I myself had to be reminded of, there is a crown.

Over the last few months, life has been on autopilot, and I have doubted the reason for my dedication to things. But one thing I’ve learnt about these moments is that in a moment — One where we encounter the intimacy of his presence— those duties suddenly make a world of sense. I would have never been there if I decided to pack things up and give up. As I cried, I felt every sacrifice I made be restored back to me. Every moment of angst was released from me. Drop by drop, I was washed again.

So I’m writing this to encourage somebody to look back for the last time and forget what things were like before. Let go of all the places you feel like a failure, Let go of how many times you’ve stumbled and get up again. Those who have given up on those things they once felt charged to do, get up again, come out of the stands and get on that start line again.

I didn’t want to release anything this week because truly I’m still in the exhaustion of my circumstance, but here I am— back on the line with you. So keep going, never give up and run— Run until you feel again your heartbeat again.

This Sunday I gave my life to Christ again.

I put my hand up — On the back of nothing more than the promise I made to God a few years ago in my first year of university— I will keep walking up to that alter, and I will lay it all down at your feet. I will keep going until I see the day I never return to pick those things up again. I will remain faithful.

On that Sunday I felt God again.

My dad uttered a few words to me last year as I went through a painful breakup. He sat me down and whispered ever so gently to me

“Love reduces itself to commitment then it increases back to love.”

Those words have changed my life. I’m reminded of Pauls's words in 2 Timothy 2:13 where we are affirmed of his love and commitment to us.

“If we are faithless, He remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself”

God sent Jesus —the evidence of his commitment, and allowed him to be crucified for him to resurrect again.

God’s dearly beloved son was crucified (reduced) by God’s commitment to us, to only resurrect (increase) back to a divine fullness of love. So when you hear that statement God is love, man it’s gotta hit different!

Before I wrap up, take it in.

Do you not see how much you are loved?

Anyways… what’s the big lesson here?

Well I’m sure —or rather I hope that there’s been something for you thus far, but what particularly drove me to write this isn’t just the burning desire to share what I cannot truly give justice to in words, but to identify something that Christian or not is an attitude that I believe is quintessential to experiencing— fully the beauty of life, and this is making the most out of each season.

I’m very well aware that half of this writing might end up being pretty useless, but to connect with some of what I mentioned in the beginning, The pandemic for all of us was this global pause that literally put a halt to everything we never imagined pausable, and for many this deeply destroyed the soul, so much so that we are still jsut about getting out of our cold feet. For some of us, we got comfortable.

For others, it was extra time to prepare.

We all, in one way or another, had a battle and —dare I say— important choices to make.

I remember seeing everyone’s hopelessness during the height of the pandemic. Profoundly I had never felt more hopeful. I remember being so busy that I left with new ideas, new relationships and a whole new world of opportunities.

I write this to say, life often throws us these curveballs, and we can get crushed. Hell we can get hit hard, but I don’t know about you, but I’d rather learn how to swing.

The after-effects of the pandemic —in many ways, is something that’s still with many of us. Yet the truth is, we just have to keep going. Even if the day feels longer, even if the moments hurt more, we just have to keep running, keep getting better and honestly to put it simply — We just have to run our best lap yet.

So today, like Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4 … I charge you— To keep training. Even if the doors might be locked on you, or that opportunity has not yet presented itself, the way you had planned…well keep training.

keep preparing and get ready to run when the doors open for you!

Just like Joseph— as he sat in the dark of that prison charged by his father in heaven sharpening his ability to interpret dreams, as soon as the opportunity comes… be ready to be sent all the way to the top.

Be prepared to run out of those shackles and begin now, to free yourself of all those entanglements. And remember— and I say this punching down on my keys as so you understand the excitement that comes with it all— There is a crown at the end of it all! Your time is coming, and how am I certain? well, you are the ink in the pen of the greatest storyteller to ever live, and with all certainty, I trust that he has written you well.

So shout this with me…

It’s time to run my best lap yet!

Gaza forever.

J.H