Reshaping it All - Day 41

Reshaping it All - Day 41

Guest contributor, Clare from Peak 313 Fitness

This weekend I did a little race called the Warrior Dash. I went with my 2 girlfriends, Jinka and Beth, and we had a BLAST! We made it a small girls weekend which made the experience even sweeter!

If you've never heard of a Warrior Dash, it's a 3.1 mile obstacle course. We started out with almost a 1.5 mile ascent in the woods. If you've ever run on trails before, you would agree that they are difficult, but add hundreds of people and a huge thunderstorm the night before and you've got yourself a muddy, nasty course! Needless to say, once we hit the obstacle courses, we were THRILLED! We did things like climb a canvas rope wall, swim through a pond pushing huge logs out of the way, jump over a junkyard, climb a rope wall, walk the plank, jump over 2 lines of fire and end in a mudpit where you crawl under barbwire! Yes. It was AWESOME!

You ought to know by now that whenever I exercise, I get totally inspired. As I was flying down the muddy trails, praying that I wouldn't lose my life, my mind was thinking of blog posts for you!!! Here are some things that I learned from my Warrior Dash.

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Muddy ground is slippery. Stating the obvious here, right? Sure. You think you are on solid ground, and then all of a sudden WHAM! There's a muddy patch and if you aren't careful, you are flying down, uncontrolled, grabbing for anything around you. There's no question that I was slipping through most of the race. I was searching for anything anchored--branches, tree stumps, poison ivy..whatever...I just needed to be anchored!

♦ Are you running on muddy ground? Are you in situations or involved with people in your life that are leaving you grabbing for anything? Set your feet on a ROCK. Be strong and go forward.

He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
he set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.

Psalm 40:2

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Things like cute ribbons can entangle you. I was making my way down a muddy, slippery path and all of a sudden, I felt a jolt to the body. My cute pink and purple hair ribbons got caught in a tree branch. I tried to quickly undo them, fumbling with muddy fingers, but that wasn't working. I had to stop and unwind them as people passed me by. It wasn't the distraction I needed or wanted at the time, but thankfully I got free.

♦ Do you have something in your life that is entangling you? Is it an addiction? A relationship? A thought? If you are entangled you aren't free to move forward. Life is passing you by and you missing out on the race that God has marked for you.

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.
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus,
the author and perfecter of our faith.
Hebrews 12:1-2

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Teamwork rocks. We decided that the 3 of us would stay together in this race. We were out to experience the dash instead of trying to win it. When one would get ahead of the others, they would stop and wait until we gathered and then we went on. One of the first obstacles we encountered was a pond with HUGE logs anchored across it. You had to jump in and push down the logs into the water as you shimmied across them. There were about 4 or 5 of these logs. I was in front and my friends were close behind. One of my friends realized she couldn't touch the bottom and was struggling to get through. The other stopped, grabbed her hand and pulled her through while I would yell "LOG!" as we approached one. It was total teamwork to get through that obstacle. We hit another obstacle with a rock wall and we talked through how to get up and around with each other. At the end, we grabbed hands and passed through the finish line with big smiles! (I'm brought to tears remembering this!)

♦ Do you have a team of people to uphold you? Listen up. Life is rough. You encounter obstacles and if you think you can get through it alone, you are crazy. You need the support of other people. Sometimes you need them to pull you through. Sometimes you need them to shout loudly in front of you. Sometimes you are the one upholding them. Please don't try to walk through life without help. Remove the pride and reach out. You will end the race victoriously, together.

But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body,
every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.
If they were all one part, where would the body be?
As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
1 Corinthians 12:18-20

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Dirt and mud is fun....for about 25 minutes. OK. Some of you may think I'm crazy for saying this, but I honestly didn't mind getting down and dirty. It was such a blast, but that came to a quick end. After the race, we got quite a few pictures, but were quickly ready to spray off. We didn't get totally cleaned where the fire hose was so we had to walk around and then drive home, half muddy. We were sooooo happy to get to our hotel and to shower off! It felt wonderful to get clean!!!

♦ Sin is fun, isn't it? Satan knows exactly what to use to get us entangled. One of our pastors always says that sin takes you further than you want to go, keeps you longer than you want to stay and costs you more than you want to pay. After a while though, the guilt and the dirtiness surrounds you. It starts to weigh you down and you are ready to be cleansed. When and if you play in the mud, run to the cleansing water.

Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith,
having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience
and having our bodies washed with pure water.
Hebrews 10:22

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Caked in dirt and mud stays around for a while. Even after our thorough showers, our clean white towels had remnants of dirt. Beth found dirt left in the crevices of her ears and toes. I was wiping dirt out of my eyes all day and we ALL were spitting dirt all day long! It took a good day or so to be totally cleansed.

♦ There may be some sins in your life that are going to hang on a bit. Have you been battling with depression, eating disorders or abusive situations? Chances are, they are deep within you. One shower will not get the deep hurts and regrets clean. Take the situation into your hands and get further help. Reach out to those who can walk you through a total cleansing. And remember that parts of your sin nature will pop it's head up in places you wouldn't realize. When you see that, clean it. Nip it in the bud. Work at keeping yourself clean and whole.

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through.
May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless
at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 5:22-24

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If you'd like to see more pics from the "Warrior Dash"
and read more posts like this, visit Clare at her blog, Peak313 Fitness

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