Chapter 2 - Pivot
In my previous post, Pivot, the story of my depressed fat-guy to marathon runner-guy was shared to illustrate the distinct differences between making a change (pivoting) because of things we no longer want versus things we do truly desire. This story was, and is, quite personal for me. There is a second chapter to that story, the Vancouver Marathon part 2, and I’d like to use it to make a few points on making great pivots of lasting and virtuous change.
There is no lasting ‘after-party’ in most of life's events. At a wedding there is a reception - which is a great after-party. Following the last sporting season, parents often host a pizza party. Even after winning a Super Bowl, there’s a big parade for the winning city. But the after party doesn’t last long. You have to get on with life.
Same went for that first marathon in my case, even though I’d come in around 246th in my age group:). There was no after party when I got home. I just took a few days off then started jogging again with a few friends, went back to my job, went back to coaching little league and doing chores and being the husband, father, neighbor, son that I’d been all along.
But I was different. I had made a pivot. (I suppose you’ll have to read the past post to get the full context.)
My friend, John, took me to lunch one day. He, too, had trained for and had run a marathon or two. LIke me, he was built like an outside linebacker but he’d trained and run and changed. “What did you learn?” he asked me over our meal. I told him how excited I was at the beginning of the race, how exhilarated I was at the half-way point, feeling strong and running faster than I’d run before. I then told him how things faded quickly and how I’d reached a point of despondent walking around mile twenty. I described, best as I could, what it felt like to be so alone.
John was moved emotionally as I then shared about the pivot - the moment when someone reached and touched my life as that gal had. He could personally relate.
A few months later I had decided to run Vancouver again. I especially wanted to get to mile 20 again and remember what had happened that day, to perhaps memorialize things somehow. I shared my plan with John and he offered to train with me, though now he’d long since quit running. No matter - he found his dusty old ten-speed Schwinn bicycle in the shed and met me at the trail once a week for my longer training runs, riding alongside me, handing water bottles, chatting about whatever. We did that through the colder winter months of January through April - not the funnest months of the year in the suburbs of Seattle.
May arrived and the weekend of the race rolled around He wished me luck and told me to enjoy the race. He and his wife even sent me a bouquet of ‘cookie flowers’ from a nice bakery nearby. Teri and a few of our kids headed up to Canada and Sunday morning came.
I waved to my bride and the kids as the starter gun sounded and I started out. I saw them again around mile 7 and they cheered me on, saying that they’d be there to cheer for me at the finish. I was in better condition this year and was more experienced at my pacing, hydration and such. I passed the half-way mark in Stanley park again and was excited for the next few miles, to get to the 20-mile mark where things changed for me.
Somewhere close to that 19-20 mile mark, along that same residential street, I hit that dang wall again but managed to plod along at a slow jog. I could see the area where the big pivot had occurred and focused ahead. I was almost to where I thought the ‘exact spot’ might have been and I noticed a guy standing alongside the road wearing a uniquely branded sweatshirt that was exactly like one I had at home. The shirt bore the name of a company I used to be the owner of, in fact. I remember thinking that one of my old company sweatshirts had made its way through the Goodwill clothing system and found its way up to Canada where some random fella was wearing it.
That’s when I noticed who was wearing it. It was my friend John. He smiled at me and waved. He moved out into the gaggle of runners and came up alongside me. Keep going. You’re gonna make it. You’re doing great.
John drove all the way to Canada to root for me, to celebrate with me, to memorialize something meaningful with me. He wore an old sweatshirt he was hoping I would notice. He found the spot where he imagined I had been so changed. He quoted the line that had so meaningfully moved me forward. He did all of that just for me - for his friend.
Now all of that is just a sappy story if you miss the point of sharing it. The pivots we make in life are going to come (or you can avoid them) and you must have someone to walk with you as you make them. God made it so. We were created to do this life together, with God and with each other.
We were created to spur one another on. To love and good work, in fact. Sometimes we do the opposite. We just sit alone OR we sit with others who feel like this or that sucks and we commiserate about the suckiness of it all, as though that might help. It doesn’t! It makes suck, suck worse!
We were meant to be, for one another, like the gal who touched my life during the first race and the friend who touched my life in the second. Both did what they did for me with intention. Neither knew the impact it would have and they just did it.
You never know the impact you will have, my friend. Resist being passive. Be intentional. Go touch another life in faith. Trust God to do what only He can do with your small act of intentionality.
My hopeful end goal today is to encourage you to go sit down with that person who has walked with you in the marathon journey that is your life up to now - to sit and work through where you still need help and to express your gratitude for the help thus far. I’m challenging you to go deeper with them and to consider the God who designed this life, albeit a challenging journey, to be one of knowing how good it is to be simultaneously desperately needy and wonderfully provisioned with folks who truly do care about you.
Be, and continue to become, that wise person who pursues life this way. Everything changes when you do - your family, your health, your work, your reasons for pursuing things…everything changes.
Peace~
Craig
If you have a story of how God has used another to spur you on, I would sure appreciate hearing it!
