The lies that the mind tells.
Posted: July 20, 2012 Filed under: faith, life, running | Tags: athletes, christianity, dedication, encouragement, exercise, faith, fear, God, learning, life, marathon, motivation, road racing, running, sports, story 3 Comments »
If you’ve ever ran a half marathon or a marathon, you’ve heard them. They’re those little whispers of doubt and negativity. They sneak in there when your oxygen levels are low. They are there when your glycogen is gone, when you are depleted.
When ever you want to accomplish something big, you hear the lies that the mind tells. Some people call it resistance. Some call it fear. But rest assured that it’s all fiction. It’s not real. Don’t believe the hype.
During the tenth mile of my first half marathon my mind began to chatter. I was tired and in over my head and that hill on Peachtree street was never ending. It was a blustery November morning. We ran into a biting headwind the whole way. A frozen mist pelted us in the face. Conditions were rough and my mind spewed it’s nonsense:
“You need to stop.”
“You’ll never make it.”
“Save face. There is always another race.”
But with the finish line in sight and my father by my side, I vowed to press on. In those last hundred yards, I found myself in a full sprint to the finish gate. I was convinced that I had what it took to complete the course and the doubt that was in my head turned out to be merely an annoyance.
The bible says that the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. The only way to beat the lies and doubts that the mind conveys is to bring out the human spirit. That unseen force that’s deep down in all of us. It’s that God given will that we all keep holstered just in case we need it. The human spirit is our get up and go when our bodies and minds have got up and went.
When the spirit takes over, those doubts that used to look like menacing bear traps turn into nothing more than an annoying gnat, something we can swat away and move past. The human spirit turns the light on the lies and reveals them for what they are. Fiction, nonsense, babble.
Despite the doubt that the mind is feeding you, know that we all have what it takes to push past it. Keep churning. Keep climbing and don’t believe the lies.
Reblogged this on Angela Shella.
Great post, S. I am convinced, more and more, that the lies of the enemy are at the root of most of my “fear”. They are all the things you mentioned… “I can’t do it”, “I’m not prepared”, “It will be too much work”…etc.
But we don’t always call our fear, FEAR. We say we are being cautious and using “due diligence”. Ya know, we say we will pray about something and wait for the Lord’s answer. We will wait on his answer…and wait… and wait…
But the things is, we don’t always pray… because we don’t want to hear the YES we know the Lord might give. We just sit around, waiting for the opportunity to pass us by so we can say, “Oh well, I just didn’t hear the Lord telling me to do it.”
God might say NO – but we don’t give Him the chance. We’ve already decided, too many times, that we don’t want to do it. So we don’t.
Moses HEARD the Lord and yet, he still didn’t want to do it and gave plenty of reasons he shouldn’t.
But he did it anyway.
God got rid of his excuses.
Whew. I’m done. My own words are smacking me upside the head. I don’t think I can take anymore.
Great response Donna. Thats a good point. We are all impatient and we often like to make our own choices, without waiting for answers to prayers.