400 meters

Time flies when you are having fun or when you have four kids really close in age!  Basketball season is coming to a close.  Track, baseball, and softball season are fast approaching us though.  The enjoyable, lazy nights of winter where we all gather around the warm fireplace bored without much to do are history. 

Looking towards the future, my youngest two kids today had a lengthy discussion about track.  They predicted what their weekday afternoons will soon be like, knowing  to expect running, throwing, and weights.

Throwing the shot and discus are my son’s all-time favorites.  Sister thinks she may join him in those events.  Who knows?   

It seems that my kids and I have one thing in common though when it comes to track and field.  We  agree that the 400 meter race is the hardest of all.  Neither of them want to compete in that specific event, but it is very useful for conditioning and popular among coaches to get everyone in shape. 

I kept on washing dishes and listening as they compared sob stories on how miserable the infamous 400 meters had made each of them.  It seems simple enough to run a single lap around the track, right?  How hard can it be?  A mile is four laps.  That should be one of the most challenging races and the topic of conversation, but we agreed that is was not and did not even mention the 1600 meters. 

Evidently, Bosque and Blaise both have strategies to survive the 400 meter dash.  (I laugh at how it is called a dash…the 400 dash is only a dash for some.)  It was never a dash for me.  It was a run, a jog, now if I go too fast, could end up being a crawl. 

Bosque said that he runs as fast as he can around the first curve.  He slows down on the straight away to regain some stamina for the last curve and tries to kick it back up a notch for the last 100 dash.  He said the last curve was the hardest though by far.  Blaise bragged that she was pretty strong on the whole race, but agreed the last curve seemed to last forever and killed her. 

At that point of their conversation, I chimed in.  Back in the day when I was in high school, we often said that a “monkey jumped on your back” on the last curve. Our coaches would yell for us to “throw the monkey off and kick.”  The last curve of the 400 meters caused me so much pain and distress that I still remember it.  It was brutal.  I detested the “monkey” that slowed me down.

I shared my memories with the kids.  They were impressed that I knew what they were talking about.  We moaned and groaned together about the final turn!  My high school track days ended 29 years ago.  I still run for amusement; however, I do not push through the last curve.   

The 400 meter dash evidently has not changed.  Our family tradition of Super Bowl ribs has not changed either, and I sure am glad it remains the same.

 I often think life is like a race really. Somedays it feels like a 400 meter dash, somedays shorter, and somedays it seems like a treacherous long distance two mile run. 

Hebrews 13:8 goes along with our track conversation and reminds me that somethings remain the same.  It says “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever.”  I sure am glad!  I need a constant in this ever-changing life!  My constant is Jesus Christ.  What about you?