Going the distance...

Jesse ran his sixth marathon yesterday.  One week after he ran his fifth.   With a partially torn ligament.  He set his pace and began the long run, and was really having a pretty difficult time keeping within his goals.  Mitch, a friend of his who was running a 5-mile leg of a relay in the same marathon, hooked up with Jesse, and saw that Jesse could use his encouragement.  Instead of jumping out after he ran his 5 miles, Mitch kept running with Jesse almost the entire way.  Mitch took the wind and encouraged and strengthened Jesse, and Jesse was able to keep the lift in his entire run, finishing his marathon in incredible time!  At the end, his beautiful new wife Amber, who had already finished running her half marathon in great time, jumped in and ran Jesse the rest of the way to the finish.

What an amazing lift someone running with us can provide!  We need to be just that for our partner.  We need to "go the distance," running further than we wanted to just to encourage them, doing things we wouldn't necessarily choose to do by ourselves, and equipping them to run and live and experience life way beyond what they could've done without us!

Challenge:  WHAT have you done to step alongside your mate and encourage them -- equip them -- strengthen them to "run their race"?  What have you sacrificed to simply join in with them and assist them in completing their goal?  What have you sacrificed to just "run them in" to finish a project, a goal, a desire?  Get in step with a direction your mate is heading, and encourage and strengthen them in it by your presence and encouragement and anything else you can offer to help them!