You are only as Strong as Your Core is…

So Strengthen Those Muscles!

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.

Luke 6:45

 I was so excited for another trail race!

The spring a year earlier I had ran my first half-marathon on apparently one of the hardest trails in the state. Six months later I was running the same course again and I had a blast.

Now it was time for a smaller one on the same trails, only a 10k this time. 

My training hadn’t gone so well but I knew I could at least finish it.

The gun went off and I went running into the woods. I was so off balance, I tripped and fell multiple times. 

I couldn’t figure out what was wrong.  I ran two half-marathons on these trails and tripped only a handful of times and slid on my butt once.  I had never fallen.

After recovery I went to strength training again to figure out what was wrong and immediately identified the problem. 

My arms were strong.  My hips were strong.  My legs were strong. Everything was still just as strong as it had been the year before.

Then I jumped on the one legged balancer and could not stand still for more than a second or two.  My core was so weak I couldn’t balance properly.

That’s why I fell so much.

In my spiritual life, I have had a real test recently to show me how strong my core is.  Through the storms in my life I realized that I don’t believe God is who He says He is and I don’t trust Him to do what He says He will do.  I have been battling depression to an extreme I’ve never experienced.  If it wasn’t for all the friends and family in my life who have been praying for me, I don’t think I would have came out stronger on the other side.

But praise be to God that He has been doing a work in my heart, giving me a sense of peace and joy amongst the difficulties, and showing me more of who He really is, allowing me to lean on Him for strength, trusting that He will keep His promises to me.  On the other side of this challenge I will probably look back and thank God for it because of what all He taught me and how much He loved me through it all.

Previous to these last few years though, I had one person to pray for me.  I had no other friends who went to the throne of grace on my behalf.  I was felt alone for the most part to deal with the challenges on my own.  I barely grew, never really learned more of who God was, and my faith seemed to be at a stand still.

What I’ve learned through the years is that everything may be giving up on us, but as long as our core is strong, we can still keep going and come out stronger on the other side. So remember… Jesus said what is on the inside comes out.

You are only as strong as your core is, so strengthen those muscles! Happy Running!