So I Did a Crazy Thing...

I signed up to run the Chicago Marathon! AHHHHHHH!!!!!!

OK, so aside from being a little freaked out, I am totally excited about doing this! If you have been reading along with us recently, then you know that I have run in two separate half marathons this year. Both experiences were incredible, testing my stamina, commitment, ability. And the sense of accomplishment at crossing the finish line completely surpassed my expectations.

As a result, I had started tossing around the idea of running in a marathon. You know, just to see if I could do it. I am not sure that I would have ever gone through with it, if my friend Amy had not signed up and started peer pressuring me to run with her. Smile. Thanks, Amy, for not giving up on me! So I jumped in and signed up.

The best part is that I am running with Team World Vision. This amazing ministry seeks to meet the physical and spiritual needs of people around the planet. And I have extra love in my heart for World Vision, because I have been sponsoring a beautiful little girl, Chantal, from Rwanda for the last three years. This is ministry practices what it preaches and is one I believe in.

Part of running with Team World Vision is fundraising to provide clean drinking water for the people of Africa. Talk about a cause I can get behind! I love knowing that our work over here is going to directly impact the place where our sweet babies will be born! Smiles all around!

This is where I need your help. I know we have been asking for help a lot here lately, but I am going to ask again. Would you consider making a donation to provide clean drinking water for the people of Africa? Just fifty U.S. dollar multiplies enough to provide clean drinking water for one person FOR LIFE. You read that right. FOR LIFE. I am trying to raise $50 per mile, for a total of $1,310. That is clean water for twenty six people for as long as they are alive. Will you help me? You can click here or on the World Vision logo on the side of the page to be taken to my personal fundraising page. You can make your donation right there.

OK, so why am I doing this? Running for 26.2 miles. Really?

Well, I will tell you why.

Running a marathon isn't just waking up one morning and thinking, "Hey! I think I am going to go run 26 miles today." I wish! No. It involves weeks, months of training. This particular race is October 13, and my first day of official training was today. I look at my training schedule for the next 18 weeks, and there is a big part of me that wants to go find a cave to hide in. This is a huge commitment of my time, resources, abilities. This will require discipline and dedication from me in a more tangible way then I think I have ever seen manifested in any other physical aspect of my life. I have never done something like this before. I know, beyond all doubt, that there will be days when I want to quit, when I feel like it is all just too much, that it is taking up too much of my time. Does that sound like something I have said to you before? It sure sounds familiar to me.

For me, running this race is a physical picture of my current life reality. I working toward something, something big. At times, I find myself saying, "Forget it. Not what I bargained for." On those days, I want to throw in the towel. But I don't. I can't. Because I know what I am working toward. And if God is using this phase of my life to discipline me, train me, prepare me for the real deal, then I have to trust Him and stick with it.

My feeling is that if I can do this training and run this actual race, then I can run the race God has set before me. So this is a very physical mirror of where I find myself in my life today. And I am excited to work through it, to see how I change as a person as a result of this, to see God use this to develop a sense of discipline in me.

I hope that makes sense. I plan to talk through more of this as I progress. Hopefully, I will have good things to tell you as God uses this to reveal His character to me.

Love,
Baylor

P.S. Please stop by my fundraising page!!