21.76

That number haunts me.

That number torments me.

It bothers me.

I went for a run the other day, a five mile run to be exact.

I use one of those GPS watches when I run so the government will always know where I am.

I start my run in my driveway and run through my neighborhood and along the Lake Wilderness trail.

When I reach 2.5 miles I turn around and run straight back on the exact same route.

My goal is to run faster on the way home than I do on the way out.

On this particular run, I went 2.5 miles in 21 minutes flat.

All I had to do to accomplish my goal was run under that on the way home and I would achieve my goal.

I was struggling, my legs were feeling heavy.

I put together a couple good speed bursts but those were short lived and I was back to a slow jog.

With the end in sight and nice downhill stretch ahead of me I pushed it.

I ran as hard as I could, which at 4.5 miles wasn’t very fast.

With about a block and a half to go I was at 20:33 and counting. I needed to finish under 21 minutes.

I didn’t look at my watch again until I made it to my driveway.

There I slumped, breathing deeply with hands on my knees from exhaustion.

I looked down and read those fateful numbers: 21.76 seconds.

I missed my goal by 21.76 seconds.

________

Is any of this really a big deal?

No.

It merely was a reminder of the type of life I want to live.

I don’t know how many days I’ll have here on earth.

I don’t know exactly what my “halfway” point is or will be.

All I know is that I want to finish strong.

I don’t want the first part of my life to exceed or be better than second part.

There’s this really weird story in scripture that reminds me of the need to finish life strongly.

Elisha the prophet dies and is buried.

During his lifetime Elisha performed many miracles.

When he died and was buried he apparently had one more miracle left in him.

The body of a man was hastily thrown into his tomb. When the body hit Elisha’s the man was instantly revived and stood to his feet. (2 Kings 13.21, NLT)

This tells me Elisha still had a little bit left when he died.

He went to his grave with at least one more miracle left.

When my time on earth is done I want to have lived it to the full.

I want to have loved, blessed and given as much as possible.