Stepping In Faith

Lent on the Run — Day 19

Mar 26, 2025

So we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord—for we walk by faith, not by sight.
— 2 Corinthians 5:7

Most every runner reaches that point in a race where the next step feels all but impossible.

It is at this point with athletes I coach, friends I talk to, or runners who ask questions, that I say: “You have to have faith.”

Faith oddly enough for this pastor to be righting about, not with God, but faith in yourself. Faith in your training, faith in your body, and faith in what you can do.

“We walk by faith, not by sight”

This phrase rings in my head. I tell folks that training is as much training your body as your mind. I encourage folks to find that zone, that feeling, where running happens as a subconscious activity. The same could be said for anything we do. It is in the subconscious that the act isn’t always attached to a physical feeling, it is attached to faith.

When I am dog tired, I have faith that my legs will continue to carry me, will get me to that finish line, and will hold this pace—I don’t need to think about it. Whether you believe in a God or not, faith is essential to life, and the concept of faith is the same no matter where it is founded.

So, when we do transfer this to our faith in God, the math checks out.

Those established routines, those experiences of faith, and those rituals of connection…

Those are the manners of acting in faith. They are what drive us forward in the journey of life. They are what bring us to the place of abiding peace, mercy, and grace under God. No matter how, where, or by what means we journey, it is by the faith of assurance, of knowing that even when we might be unsure where that next step might land, that through faith, we trust that God is bringing us in the right direction.

What are the clouded steps that you are leaving to God this Lent?