What happens when you want to quit but keep on going

I’m running again.

We are averaging thirty to forty miles a week.  The trouble is that the first three miles causes the muscles along my shin to tighten up.  The pain is a less than pleasant sensation.  It gets so tight that I just want to stop.  I don’t, but I want to.

The funny thing is that once I get beyond three miles, the muscles relax and the pain goes away.  It gets much easier, even enjoyable.  On a six, eight or ten mile run, I feel better the second half than I do the first.  Odd, but true.

This is how hard things are.  If you can keep going through the hard part, eventually it gets easy.  The problem is that most of us quit as soon as it gets to be hard and we never get to see how easy it will eventually become.

I am told Dr. Lee Roberson, who pastored the Highland Park Baptist Church of Chattanooga, Tennessee for over forty years, was asked how he made it so long when other pastors didn’t.  He replied, “I guess when they quit, I just kept going.”